MORGANTOWN — J.J. Quinerly will enter next week’s Big 12 tournament on quite a roll.
Just three days after putting her name in the WVU record books with 38 points, the senior guard followed it up with 31 more, as the 18th-ranked Mountaineers took down Cincinnati 85-69 inside Fifth Third Arena.
WVU (23-6, 13-5 Big 12) will walk into Kansas City for the conference tourney as either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed, depending on what happens in today’s Kansas State-Iowa State game in Ames, Iowa.
A win by Kansas State would keep WVU in fifth place in the Big 12. A win by Iowa State means WVU would move up to fourth place.
A No. 4 seed would mean the Mountaineers would receive a bye into the quarterfinals and not play until noon Friday. Getting the No. 5 seed would see WVU play at noon Thursday.
In any case, this game was about Quinerly at the start, before teammates Jordan Harrison and Jordan Thomas got into the action later.
“J.J. is in a little rhythm right now,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said on his radio postgame show. “Thirty-one, seven (rebounds) and seven (assists), that’s a pretty good night.”
Quinerly scored 24 of her 31 over the first two quarters, as the Mountaineers raced out to a 44-30 halftime lead.
“They were playing zone, so we had time and space to operate,” Kellogg said. “I thought we were getting real good looks. We couldn’t make a lay-up to start. I thought we had rhythm, we were in a good flow and playing hard on defense. It’s frustrating when you can’t make lay-ups. We had to keep battling, and we did.”
It was Quinerly’s sixth career 30-point game, which ties her with Rosemary Kosiorek, Meg Bulger and Talisha Hargis for the most all-time at WVU.
She finished 11 of 18 from the floor and was 3 of 6 from 3-point range and 6 of 9 from the foul line.
Over these last two games, Quinerly is shooting 69% overall and 64% from behind the arc.
Harrison was a perfect 4 for 4 from 3-point range and finished with 21 points, while Thomas came off the bench to add an inside presence with 16 points and eight rebounds.
WVU recorded 47 rebounds — its most in Big 12 play this season — including 21 offensive rebounds.
“I thought the rebounding was awesome,” Kellogg said. “We almost doubled them up, 47-29. We had 21 offensive rebounds on a night when we didn’t make a bunch of shots.”
Cincinnati (15-13, 7-11) got to within 13 points late in the fourth quarter, and the Bearcats connected on eight 3-pointers with senior forward Jillian Hayes leading the way with 20 points and eight rebounds.
Cincinnati was also just 13 of 24 from the foul line.
The regular season is now complete in Kellogg’s second season at WVU. In those two seasons, WVU is 25-11 against Big 12 competition.
“It was a solid year,” Kellogg said. “We’ve got 23 wins overall, which is what we were last year. We were 12-6 in the league (last season), so a little bit of a step in the right direction.
“We get to close this chapter and we’re going to open up a new one next week, and then we’ll close that one and hopefully open up another one in the NCAA tournament. We’re not done yet.”
