No. 18 WVU looks to finish regular season strong in road game against Cincinnati

MORGANTOWN — WVU’s mission is simple, which is to say the No. 18 Mountaineers will roll into Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena at 2 p.m. Saturday expecting to close out the regular season with a victory.

After that, well, it gets a little complicated.

“We’ll regroup quickly and figure out how to beat Cincinnati,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said after the Mountaineers’ 75-46 demolishing of Utah on Wednesday. “Then we’ll have some momentum going into Kansas City.”

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That’s where next week’s Big 12 tournament is, and figuring out where WVU (22-6, 12-5 Big 12) will end up in that tournament still depends on a number of outside factors.

“I think we can still get in the top four and get a double-bye,” Kellogg said. “We may only get a single-bye, but either way, we need to get to Kansas City and go on a run and see what happens for the NCAA tournament.”

WVU enters today’s game tied with Utah for fifth place. The Mountaineers have the tiebreaker against the Utes and would be the No. 5 seed currently. With a win, WVU can finish no lower than fifth, but could also move up to fourth, which would mean a bye over the first two rounds of the conference tournament.

Depending on how Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Utah finish in their final games, moving up to fourth could come in one of two ways. If those four teams all finish with identical 13-5 Big 12 records, Oklahoma State would earn the No. 3 seed and WVU would be the No. 4 seed.

If WVU wins and Kansas State loses against Iowa State on Sunday, the Mountaineers would hold the tiebreaker and move up to the fourth seed. If both WVU and Kansas State win, it assures the Mountaineers would be the No. 5 seed.

A loss against the Bearcats (15-12, 7-10) opens up the possibility of WVU falling to the No. 6 seed in Kansas City. That would also depend on Utah’s result against BYU today.

The matchup will be the 17th meeting between WVU and Cincinnati, who were once members of the Big East. West Virginia is 11-5 all-time against the Bearcats, including a 4-3 mark when playing inside Fifth Third Arena. The Mountaineers have won eight straight against UC.

Cincinnati features two players averaging double figures, led by Jillian Hayes’ 15.6 points per game. Tineya Hylton adds 13.3 points and a team-leading 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals. Hayes also leads the Bearcats on the glass, grabbing 9.6 rebounds per contest to narrowly miss out on a double-double average.

With a win, WVU will reach 13 Big 12 conference wins in a season for just the third time in 13 seasons.

J.J. Quinerly leads WVU in scoring at 20.1 points per game and tied a program record with 38 points against Utah.

Junior guard Jordan Harisson (13.1) and Sydney Shaw (12.0) also averaged double figures for the Mountaineers. Quinerly’s scoring average is the third-best in the conference and 19th in the nation.
Harrison’s 4.7 assists per game leads WVU and ranks 10th in the Big 12. Senior guard Kyah Watson has grabbed 7.8 rebounds per game, which ranks fifth in the Big 12, while her 3.3 steals per game ranks first.

The Big 12’s leaders in steals last season, Watson (94), Quinerly (86) and Harrison (60), are at it again this season, averaging over two steals per contest to all rank inside the top five in the conference. Shaw and senior guard Sydney Woodley have also gotten in on the action with 51 and 49 steals this season, giving WVU five players with 49-plus steals through 28 games.

The Mountaineers have forced 15-plus turnovers in 61 straight games, the longest active streak in the nation. This season WVU has recorded 20-plus turnovers in 19 games, to average 24.7 per game. The mark ranks second in the nation.

Quinerly currently sits No. 5 on the all-time scoring list with 1,906. Quinerly is 3rd in steals with 317 and sits sixth all-time in Big 12 Conference history.