Kansas State Beats West Virginia To Advance in Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas State outlasted West Virginia down the stretch in a 65-62 victory in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on Saturday.
The Mountaineers (24-7) and Wildcats met just one time in the regular season. That was on Feb. 21. Ayoka Lee scored 26 points in a 73-64 overtime with for the Wildcats (25-6).
The rematch held just as much drama as the first did in regulation.
Kansas State will face Texas in the Big 12 semifinals on Monday at 4 p.m. Iowa State and Oklahoma will play in the first semifinal game at 1:30 p.m.
It was the last quarterfinal game of the day and it came down to the wire, as both teams built double-digit leads in the game and lost them. Kansas State lost theirs by early in the fourth quarter when West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly drained a 3-pointer less than a minute in.
Kansas State claimed the lead for good with 2:45 remaining on a turnaround layup by Ayoka Lee, who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds despite foul trouble in the second half.
From there, Lee rejected a Quinerly layup, K-State committed a shot clock violation and Quinerly lost the ball on a drive to the basket with 1:28 left to give the Wildcats possession. But, after a review, it was reversed to give West Virginia the ball.
Quinerly drove again and this time traveled with the ball, giving K-State the ball with 1:21 left. Kansas State nearly turned it over twice on entry passes to Lee. But both times WVU couldn’t possess the ball in bounds.
On the third try, Serena Sundell canned a short baseline jumper with less than a minute to play to give Kansas State a four-point lead.
After a WVU time out, Quinerly made one of two free throws to cut Kansas State’s lead to three points with 45 seconds left. That prompted a Kansas State time out to advance the basketball.
WVU had only two team fouls, so they fouled once to stop the clock and then Kansas State took a time out with 29 seconds left on the game clock and 13 seconds left on the shot clock.
The Mountaineer defense forced the Wildcats to a bad shot as the shot clock expired, giving the Mountaineers possession with 15 seconds left and a chance to tie.
The shot the Mountaineers got was a Kylee Blacksten 3-poitner with eight seconds left, which missed. The ball went out of bounds off WVU with 4.9 seconds left. After review, the call stood.
WVU fouled Kansas State’s Gabby Gregory immediately and then fouled Lee to get to five team fouls with 3.1 seconds left to send the Wildcats to the free throw line. She missed both, West Virginia grabbed the rebound and called time out with 1.8 seconds left to advance the ball.
On the game’s final play, Jayla Hemingway inbouned the ball to Quinerly on the baseline who had a solid look at a 3-pointer but it rimed in and out as time expired.
Quinerly had a huge game for West Virginia, as she scored 27 points, including five 3-pointers. Jordan Harrison added 16 points.
Gregory had 11 points for K-State, including a couple of key 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Sundell scored 14 points and had eight assists.
At one point in the third quarter Kansas State led by 10 points. But West Virginia slowly applied its press to the Wildcats and it eventually paid off with a couple of key turnovers and points off those mistakes.
West Virginia’s 8-0 run to end the third was capped by Kyah Watson’s steal, and ensuing pass to Quinerly, as the All-Big 12 guard drained a 3-pointer with five seconds left to cut Kansas State’s lead to 49-48 entering the fourth quarter.
Quinerly then drained another 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter to give the Mountaineers the lead.
Kansas State held a 34-31 lead at halftime after falling behind by as many as 12 points. Still, Kansas State shot 63 percent for the half and got 16 points out of Lee, who avoided foul trouble and played 18 of a possible 20 minutes.
West Virginia started the half hot, led by Quinerly’s 14 points. But the shooting tailed off and the Mountaineers were below 40 percent at the break.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
