No. 18 West Virginia drops BYU women to 0-3 in Big 12 play

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Press Virginia was alive and well in BYU's first-ever visit to the WVU Coliseum.

JJ Quinerly scored 12 of her 19 points in the second half, and the 18th-ranked Mountaineers scored 33 points on 31 turnovers to pull past BYU women's basketball 66-53 Saturday afternoon in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Kemery Congdon had 16 points and five rebounds for BYU (9-5, 0-3 Big 12), and Emma Calvert added 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Amari Whiting scored 10 points with seven rebounds and three assists, and Delaney Gibb supplied 9 points, three rebounds and two assists. But the backcourt duo combined for 19 turnovers, including 12 by the four-star freshman and three-time Big 12 freshman of the week from Raymond, Alberta.

"Their approach to the game was fine. I thought we handled it early," BYU assistant coach Lee Cummard told BYU Radio after the game. "It's important that our guards learn from this, and that our teams learn from this.

"Quinerly came out and really got aggressive in the third quarter and got them going," he added. "We've got to learn from this."

In the Cougars' third-ever meeting with West Virginia and first trip to Morgantown, Calvert had 6 points and six rebounds as BYU outscored the Mountaineers 12-2 in the paint en route to a 20-13 lead after the first quarter.

Lauren Davenport and Congdon drained back-to-back threes as the Cougars ended the quarter on a 14-3 run.

West Virginia (12-2, 2-1 Big 12) forced 13 first-half turnovers, but Congdon finished the first half with 9 points on 3-of-3 3-point shooting and BYU held the Mountaineers to just 26% from the field to stake a 30-28 halftime edge.

But Quinerly, the unanimous All-Big 12 selection who averaged 18.7 points in her first 12 games, beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer, then scored 6 during a 12-2 run to open the second half as the Mountaineers turned a 7-point deficit into a 6-point lead midway through the third quarter.

After scoring just 7 points on 2-of-10 shooting in the first half, Quinerly connected on 4-of-8 in the third quarter to go along with two assists and two steals and help the Mountaineers turn things around — and turn over the visiting Cougars with 18 second-half takeaways.

Kyah Watson added 10 points, nine rebounds and four steals for West Virginia, which gave away just eight turnovers.

It's the third consecutive loss for BYU, which gave up 16 points in the fourth quarter of a 57-53 home loss to Arizona to open Big 12 play Dec. 21. The Cougars then gave away 24 turnovers in a 72-63 loss Wednesday to Cincinnati before finishing the two-game road trip against West Virginia.

BYU is back home Wednesday to host Houston (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+) before hosting league leaders No. 12 Kansas State next Saturday at 4 p.m. MST.

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