Quinerly scores 29, No. 18 West Virginia women pull away from Cincinnati 69-50

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — JJ Quinerly scored 29 points and No. 18 West Virginia broke the game open in the third quarter en route to a 69-50 win over Cincinnati on Saturday.

The Mountaineers scored the last six points of the second quarter to take a six-point lead at halftime and scored the first seven points of the third quarter to take a 34-21 lead. After the Bears scored, West Virginia reeled off the next 11 points that made it 45-23.

Quinerly scored 10 in the 25-2 run and Sydney Shaw scored all nine of her points in the third-quarter surge.

Quinerly, who moved into fifth on the school career-scoring list with 1,829 points, was the only player in double figures for the Mountaineers (20-5, 10-4 Big 12 Conference). They forced 24 turnovers that were turned into 23 points and held Cincinnati to 32% shooting.

Jillian Hayes scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Bearcats (14-10, 5-8).

The Bearscats took a 21-20 lead with a minute to go in the first half but Destiny Agubata drilled a 3-pointer, Sydney Woodley followed with a fastbreak layup and Quinerly knocked down a jumper just before the buzzer for a 27-21 lead.

The Mountaineers had a 10-0 run in the first period for a 14-7 lead going into the second.

The Bearcats shot 37% with 14 turnovers i the first half while West Virginia was 1 of 9 from 3-point range and didn’t attempt a free throw.

Cincinnati started the third quarter 1 of 9 with five turnovers before scoring nine points in the last three minutes.

No. 14 Kansas State visits West Virginia on Monday. The Bearcasts go to Texas Tech on Wednesday.

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