MORGANTOWN – The No. 21 ranked West Virginia University women’s basketball team defeated No. 24 Oklahoma State 54-37 on Saturday afternoon inside the WVU Coliseum.
The victory avenges a loss from January 11, where the Mountaineers fell to the Cowgirls 64-57 in Stillwater.
Junior Sydney Shaw led WVU (17-4, 7-3 Big 12) with 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field. Senior JJ Quinerly added 15 points, four rebounds, four assists, and eight steals, as the two combined for 33 points.
Quinerly is third all-time in program history in steals and now within the top ten in Big 12 history.
The Mountaineers forced 21 turnovers, turning them into 17 points, and scored 30 points in the paint against Oklahoma State (18-3, 8-3 Big 12).
“First of all, I thought the crowd was great; that’s as loud as the building has been since I’ve been here,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “It was a battle, and I’m as proud of this team for this win as much as any of them. It was a tough, gritty, defensive battle. We had some foul trouble with JJ and Jordan (Harrison). That’s a really good offensive team (Oklahoma State) that averages about 77 points a game that we held to 37.”
Shaw knocked down a deep three on the Mountaineers’ opening possession of the game before a 6-0 run saw Oklahoma State lead after the opening minutes of the contest.
That would be the final points the Cowgirls would see for the final seven minutes of the first quarter but the Mountaineers also had trouble finding the bottom of the net and led 10-6 after the first ten minutes.
WVU held Oklahoma State scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter, extending the Cowgirls’ scoring drought to 11 minutes.
The Mountaineers opened the second with a 6-0 run, pushing their lead to 16-6 at the 6:06 mark. Oklahoma State cut the deficit to five points a few minutes later, but WVU responded with six unanswered points to take a 23-14 lead into halftime.
“I think we were careless with the ball at the beginning of the game. It seemed that for a while, both teams either scored or turned the ball over,” Kellogg said.
Oklahoma State cut the WVU lead to six points right after the break. Shaw dominated the third quarter, scoring eight of the Mountaineers’ 18 points, helping WVU extend their lead to 41-29 by the end of the period.
The Mountaineers shot 53.3% from the field in the quarter, while the Cowgirls struggled, hitting just 3 of 15 attempts. However, Oklahoma State stayed within reach thanks to a perfect 7-for-7 performance from the free-throw line.
The Cowgirls managed to cut the WVU lead to single digits, 46-37, with 3:29 left to play, but the Mountaineers ended the contest on an 8-0 run to secure a crucial victory.
The Mountaineers will return home to the Coliseum for their next contest to host Kansas on Wednesday, February 5, for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.
