MORGANTOWN — The final second ticked off the clock Sunday, as Madisen Smith spiked the ball into the WVU Coliseum floor.
Over the course of 40 minutes, the WVU women’s basketball team survived a strong rally from Baylor and ended up spiking the No. 18 Bears, too, to the tune of a 74-65 victory in front of 2,702 fans.
“I thought our young ladies battled and showed a lot of toughness,” WVU head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “We certainly didn’t play great in the second quarter and didn’t start off well defensively in the third quarter. We feel really fortunate to kind of persevere and find a way to come out on top.”
The heroes were many, but the victory was certainly significant for the Mountaineers (12-4, 3-2 Big 12).
Not only did it end an 11-game losing streak against Baylor (12-5, 3-2) — WVU’s last victory over the Bears came in the 2017 Big 12 tournament championship game — but it also ended WVU’s 16-game losing streak against AP Top 25-ranked teams.
To do it took WVU getting off to a fast start that led to a 32-18 lead halfway through the second quarter, only to see Baylor roar back to take a 45-35 lead in the third quarter, before the Mountaineers came back to make their winning push.
“Just not quitting, that was a big part of it,” said WVU guard Jayla Hemingway, who finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. “We all wanted this game. We all wanted to compete. They had their run, but we had ours, as well.”
As far as streaks, Plitzuweit is now 2-0 against Baylor, including a 61-47 victory in the second round of the 2022 NCAA tournament, when she was coaching at South Dakota.
Plitzuweit wasn’t about to admit she’s got some secret formula to beat Baylor, but at game’s end, Plitzuweit handed out about 10 times the amount of high-fives in the WVU student section as the Bears made baskets in the fourth quarter.
With the game tied at 57 heading into the final 10 minutes, Baylor was held to just 3 of 16 shooting.
“We’re not a team that’s good when we have one big scorer,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said, noting that Sarah Andrews had 24 points, but the rest of Baylor’s starters combined to shoot 11 of 32. “We’re at our best when we’re sharing the ball and we’re assisting on our baskets. A lot of that was missed shots.
“We were driving it and kicking it and we were making the extra pass, but we missed open shots.”
WVU’s heroes included Hemingway’s double-double, as well as Smith and Quinerly combining for 34 points.
Kylee Blacksten made her biggest contributions on the inside and the outside.
She nailed two big 3-pointers, including one early in the fourth quarter that gave WVU a 66-59 lead, but then also added five baskets around the rim to give the Mountaineers an inside presence.
Blacksten finished with 16 points.
“That one just felt right,” Blacksten said of her fourth-quarter 3-pointer. “I had rushed some of the other shots that I took. I definitely felt that shot helped us.”
Collen called the shot “a dagger,” and then Hemingway came up with a big steal on an inbounds pass minutes later that turned into a lay-up for a 70-63 lead.
Moments later, the celebration was on, as WVU players circled around each other and jumped up and down in triumph.
“The moment is just hitting me now,” Blacksten said. “Madisen celebrated everything and she gave us such great energy. She helped all of us. She gave us energy to run faster, all of it.”
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