MORGANTOWN – The No. 20 West Virginia University women’s basketball team avenged an early loss on Wednesday night, defeating the Colorado Buffaloes 73-46 inside the WVU Coliseum.
WVU (14-3, 4-2 Big 12) dropped the first meeting with the Buffaloes (12-5, 3-3 Big 12) 65-60 on December 21, 2024.
The Mountaineers were led by seniors Sydney Shaw and JJ Quinerly, scoring 19 points each. Junior Jordan Harrison contributed Nine points, seven rebounds, and four assists.
WVU forced 30 turnovers out of the Buffaloes during the game.
“Interesting start to that game,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “Didn’t really love the beginning of it; we didn’t make many shots or find our offensive flow there early. But I thought we got considerably better as the game went on. When you turn a team over 30 times and get 39 points off of those turnovers, it should lead to a good night.”
Colorado made eight of its 11 shot attempts in the first quarter, building a 22-15 lead. But the Mountaineers emerged from the huddle as a new unit and outscored the Buffaloes 16-2 in the second.
“I thought we executed better tonight, and that’s been one of my complaints recently,” Kellogg said. “When we got into the halfcourt we executed well, and the defensive effort after the first quarter was tremendous. That’s a team that averages nearly 80 points a game so to hold them to 46 is pretty good.”
The Mountaineers began the third quarter with a seven-point advantage but Colorado was the team to open the second half with a run of its own.
After scoring only two points the entire second quarter, the Buffaloes went on an 8-0 run in the first 2:30 of the third quarter, snatching the lead 32-31.
But the Mountaineers responded with a run of their own sparked by a triple by Kyah Watson that gave them the lead again, 34-32.
The run capped at 15-0 for WVU as the lead grew to 14 points for the hosts.
“That was a horrific start,” Kellogg said of the beginning of the third quarter. “That’s something we struggle with at times, and we will continue to address it. At times, we haven’t been very good in the third quarter; last year, our third quarter was the best for us.”
WVU outscored Colorado 34-18 between the second and third frames.
The Mountaineers led 49-40 entering the final quarter before Quinerly broke off a personal 6-0 run in the opening two minutes of the fourth, pushing the lead to 15, 55-40.
WVU wouldn’t look back from that point, outscoring the Buffaloes 24-6 in the final eight minutes to earn its fourth conference victory of the season.
The Mountaineers return home to the Coliseum on Sunday afternoon for a matinee matchup with Iowa State at 1:00 p.m.
“It’s a big weekend with the men’s game on Saturday and then ours on Sunday,” Kellogg said. “This is one of those nationally televised games for us, and we need to make sure we are ready for the challenge. We’ve had great crowds this season, and I would love for the world to see what we have here at West Virginia. We’ve had great home crowds and advantage here since I’ve been here, and I hope we have the best yet Sunday at 1 o’clock.”
