WVU Women’s Basketball Slaughters Cincy in Home Finale

WVU Women’s Basketball destroyed Cincinnati 118-60 in their regular season finale on Sunday, March 1 at the Hope Coliseum.

They currently hold the No. 2 spot in the Big 12, with No. 1 seed TCU and No. 3 seed Baylor (13-4) facing off on Sunday evening; if Baylor beats TCU, they’d have the tiebreaker over the No. 17 Mountaineers (24-6, 14-4 Big 12) despite a head-to-head loss because West Virginia went 0-2 against the Horned Frogs, the top team in the conference.

Four of the Mountaineers’ starters cleared 20 points. Sydney Shaw set career highs with six three-pointers made — five of them in the first half — and 24 points; Jordan Harrison (20 points, 10 assists) and Kierra “Meme” Wheeler (21 points, 11 rebounds) both notched double-doubles and Gia Cooke (20 points) got in on the action too. West Virginia’s fifth starter, junior Carter McCray, joined the fun with a career milestone, scoring 12 points to put her over 1,000 for her career.

All Dominance, All the Way

West Virginia raced out to a 30-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and forced 15 of 18 turnovers in the first half, scaling down the pressure with the game well out of hand before the half. Cooke drained consecutive threes in the minute before the half, including one at the buzzer to put the home team ahead 59-21.

Cincinnati made 15-0f-30 shots after the break after converting just 7-of-23 in the first 20 minutes. The Mountaineers’ offense continued to pour it on as they rotated in the reserves. Riley Makalusky scored nine points in the fourth quarter; a 7-0 run from the Bearcats in the final four minutes cut into a lead that grew as high as 67 points.

Up next, WVU Women’s Basketball will play in the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, earning a double bye and entering the quarterfinals on Friday, March 6.

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