Quinerly’s 24 points help West Virginia defeat K-State, 73-69 move on to Big 12 semifinals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - In a battle between First Team All-Big 12 guards, it was West Virginia guard JJ Quinerly who got the last laugh on Friday afternoon, helping the Mountaineers advance past Kansas State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
With the matchup between 5th-seeded Kansas State and 4th-seeded West Virginia tied at 69, Quinerly attacked K-State sophomore guard Taryn Sides and scored on a floater that gave WVU a 71-69 advantage with 44 seconds remaining. Quinerly’s floater was the final basket of the game as the Mountaineers held on to beat K-State, 73-69.
“That was a heck of a game,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said after the loss. “We made a lot of plays in this game so I can’t fault our group. I thought our group played well. I thought our group did a lot of really really good things. I’m proud of their effort.”
The loss ends the Wildcats Big 12 Tournament run after two games and sends the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament with a 26-7 record.
Everything was clicking for the K-State offense in the first quarter as the Wildcats scored 33 points and totaled 1.83 points per possession, scoring nearly every time down the floor. In that quarter the Wildcats jumped out to a 33-23 lead over the Mountaineers with 11 assists on their 13 made baskets.
Star senior guard Serena Sundell had six assists in that quarter and turned that hot start into a 9-assist day for the Wildcats. But after a hot start in the game’s first quarter, the second quarter and second half was an offensive struggle for the Wildcats.
Sundell finished with 10 points and 2 rebounds to go along with the 9 assists.
Over the final 20 minutes of the game, K-State shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 27.3 percent from 3-point range. After scoring 33 points in the first quarter, K-State scored 36 points in the remainder of the game. Despite the slow in scoring for K-State down the stretch, both teams shot 50 percent or better from the floor.
“Both teams shot the ball well and it wasn’t because of bad defense,” Mittie said.
After the Mountaineers stormed back to take the lead in the third quarter, senior forward Temira Poindexter grabbed the lead back for the Wildcats with a deep 3-pointer that banked off the glass and in as time expired in the quarter, giving KSU a 58-56 advantage.
After Quinerly hit the eventual game-winner, Poindexter had an open corner 3-pointer with K-State trailing 71-69. The shot missed, ending her day with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
“Keep shooting,” Poindexter said about her mindset moving forward. “It felt like a lot of pressure shooting that shot but that’s not going to stop me in the next couple of games.”
Throughout the contest, Quinerly was the catalyst for the Mountaineers offense. Quinerly had a game-high 24 points but was aided by double-figure scoring efforts from Jordan Harrison (19), Sydney Shaw (13) and Jordan Thomas (11).
K-State senior forward Kennedy Taylor, a Shawnee Mission Northwest alum, scored 21 points to lead the Wildcats in the loss.
With the win, the Mountaineers will take on the winner of No. 9 seed Colorado and No. 1 seed TCU on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
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