IOWA CITY, Iowa — JJ Quinerly scored 15 of her game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter as the WVU women’s basketball team posted their first NCAA Tournament win in three seasons with a 63-53 triumph over Princeton at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. With the victory, the Mountaineers have earned a second-round matchup with the host and top-seeded Iowa on Monday.
Quinerly went 5-of-5 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the final quarter to keep the Tigers at a distance in the late minutes.
“I really thought coming in that it could look something like that, just based on Princeton and the way they defend,” said WVU head coach Mark Kellogg. “I thought they were maybe under-evaluated or under-appreciated for how good they were on the defensive end.
“We weren’t great tonight. But we were good enough.”
The Tigers jumped out to an 8-2 lead just three minutes into the game on the strength of a pair of three-pointers from Madison St. Rose. WVU quickly countered by scoring the next six points. Quinerly capped the run with a pair of baskets. Princeton led 14-11 after the opening stanza.
Princeton took their largest lead of the first half early in the second quarter. A triple from Kaitlyn Chen extended the Tiger lead to 19-11. Chen scored 11 points in the opening half.
“We couldn’t get the pace going,” Kellogg said. “It was too slow. And we couldn’t get them turned over.”
WVU crept closer despite Jordan Harrison picking up her second foul with 3:50 to play in the half. Harrison was reinserted into the lineup for the final offensive possession after sitting for over three minutes. She drained a deep three from the top of the key at the buzzer to pull West Virginia within a basket at the break, 26-24. Quinerly (11) and Harrison (9) combined to score 20 of WVU’s 24 points in the opening half.
“I just let it go. I knew it was going to go in. I was just glad it did,” Harrison said.
The Mountaineers cut the lead to ✌️#MarchMadness x 🎥 ESPN2 / @WVUWBB pic.twitter.com/p630JxBqTN
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 23, 2024
“We just wanted to come out of the gates very aggressive,” said WVU senior forward Kylee Blacksten. “We might have struggled a little bit at the beginning. Coming out of half, we kind of made it an emphasis to make sure that we were aggressive and getting up and getting all over the place.”
After allowing a three-pointer by Chen on Princeton’s opening possession of the third quarter, West Virginia answered with a 13-0 run. The Mountaineers forced turnovers on three consecutive Tiger possessions and converted those into eight points, giving WVU a 37-29 cushion.
After forcing just five turnovers in the first half, the Tigers turned the ball over ten times in the first six minutes of the third quarter. West Virginia led 42-33 entering the fourth quarter.
“We went in at the half and coach said, ‘That’s not us. Our defense is way better than that’. We just picked it up and showed some intensity and some toughness. You see what happened,” Quinerly said.
“Like we have been doing all year, we feed off of transition buckets, steals, deflections. We’re not going to change anything,” Harrison said. “We are going to do what West Virginia does. And that is get turnovers regardless of who the team is.”
“There were some minor tactical adjustments, which I am not going to go ahead and give you those in case we need them again,” Kellogg said. “Really, it was just settling in to see what their press breaker was going to be.”
Harrison continued to battle foul trouble in the second half. She picked up her fourth foul on a charge with 7:07 remaining. Blacksten picked up her fourth foul just over a minute later. Despite the foul trouble, WVU did not relinquish the lead in the fourth quarter. Quinerly scored 15 points in the final stanza. She also pulled down seven rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.
“JJ was special again,” Kellogg said. “She has been all year. I hope people across the country and starting to realize how talented she is. We have a great backcourt and I thought they were dynamite for us.”
The Mountaineers celebrate their 63-53 win over Princeton in Rd. 1 of the NCAA Tournament: pic.twitter.com/4RzzI8NTGP
— Joe Brocato (@joebrowvm) March 24, 2024
Princeton crept within six points at 48-42 and later at 57-51 but could not pull any closer.
Harrison scored 15 points in 25 minutes on the floor. Blacksten (3-4 FG) scored 10 points in her first double-digit point total since the Texas Tech game on February 6.
St. Rose led the Tigers with 22 points. Chen added 17 points. Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Ellie Mitchell pulled down 15 rebounds.
The Mountaineers (25-7) will face the Hawkeyes Monday at 8 p.m. in the second-round matchup. Iowa defeated Holy Cross, 91-65 in the opening game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The winner of Monday’s game will advance to the regional round in Albany, N.Y. next weekend.
“It means so much,” Blacksten said. “Every moment now is precious. Any time can be anyone’s moment.”