WVU Women’s Basketball Rides Strong Fourth Quarter Past Northwestern

WVU Women’s Basketball won their fourth straight game to begin the 2026-27 season on Friday, Nov. 13, taking down the Northwestern Wildcats 66-53 in the Greenbrier Tipoff.

The No. 24 Mountaineers faced a 51-51 tie with 4:20 to play but scored the next six points, allowing just one basket the rest of the way and closing the game on a 9-0 run.

Senior guard Gia Cooke hit the 1,000-point barrier for her career on a layup with 3:04 to go; a three-pointer 48 seconds later put her firmly on the other side of the barrier and started West Virginia’s final run. The Mountaineers struggled from beyond the arc all night, making just four of 23 three-point shots; they converted on a much better 48.5 percent of shots from two-point range and, despite the Wildcats’ ability to keep the game close, never trailed.

Head coach Mark Kellogg’s patented defense forced 22 turnovers and his players drew 19 fouls, turning into a 20 of 26 clip from the charity stripe that helped see West Virginia across the finish line. The Mountaineers kept Northwestern off the board for the first 4:37 of the second half, but their own shooting woes prevented them from taking a commanding lead; the Wildcats’ first made shot, a Casey Harter and-one, kept the game within a possession, although Skylar Forbes answered it with a three-point bucket of her own.

A Nylah Watson steal with 17 seconds remaining in the first half allowed West Virginia to take a 36-30 lead into the break on a buzzer-beating jumper from Kyalah Ngodu that Cooke set up with one of her team-leading three assists.

Up next, WVU Women’s Basketball will host Akron at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17.