MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Madisen Smith and Ja’Naiya Quinerly scored 17 points apiece, Jayla Hemingway added 15 points and 14 rebounds and West Virginia’s defense forced seven fourth-quarter turnovers as the Mountaineers beat No. 18 Baylor 74-65 Sunday.
Dawn Plitzuweit, in her first season as head coach at West Virginia, led South Dakota to a No. 10 seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and beat Baylor in the first round before the Mountaineers were eliminated by Michigan in the second round.
West Virginia (12-4, 3-2 Big 12) has won three consecutive games following consecutive 20-plus point losses to No. 19 Oklahoma and at No. 15 Iowa State, and improved to 4-22 all-time against Baylor, 1-9 at home.
Sarah Andrews hit four 3-pointers and finished with 24 points, Darianna Littlepage-Buggs added 14 points and 15 rebounds and Caitlin Bickle scored 10 points for Baylor (12-4, 3-1).
The Bears were coming off a 70-65 loss at Oklahoma State that snapped a four-game win streak.
Baylor closed the first half with a 16-1 run to take a one-point halftime lead. Andrews scored seven points and Littlepage-Buggs added four more in an 11-2 run that gave Baylor a 10-point lead about 3 minutes into the third quarter. The Mountaineers scored 19 of the next 27 points to take a one-point lead when Smith hit a 3 with 1:33 left in the period. There were three more lead changes and three ties before Smith hit a jumper, Kylee Blacksten followed with a layup and a 3-pointer and Kyah Watson scored in the lane to cap a 9-0 run and West Virginia led thereon.
The Bears shot 3 of 16 (18.8%) from the field — 0 for 6 from 3-point range — and scored just eight points in the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
Baylor returns home to take on Kansas State on Wednesday
West Virginia plays Wednesday at No. 23 Kansas
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
