WVU mounts rally to defeat Princeton
Quinerly’s 29 leads comeback in second half
After trailing Princeton for all of the first half, West Virginia took the lead on Kylee Blacksten’s 3-pointer 2:11 into the second half and held on for a 63-53 victory against ninth-seeded Princeton on Saturday at Iowa City, Iowa.
The win advanced the Mountaineers (25-7) into a second-round meeting with Albany Region top seed Iowa and all-time scoring leader and player of the year Caitlin Clark on Monday.
JJ Quinerly led eighthseeded West Virginia with 29 points and seven rebounds.
“JJ was special again,” said WVU coach Mark Kellogg. “She has been all year, and I hope people around the country are starting to realize how talented she is.”
Madison St. Rose scored 22 points to lead the Tigers, who cut West Virginia’s lead to 57-51 on Ashley Chea’s 3-pointer with 53 seconds left.
Quinerly responded with a layup to make it 59-51 with 49 seconds left and, after St. Rose’s two free throws with 43 seconds to go, the Mountaineers made four clutch free throws in the final moments to sew up the win.
Albany Region 1
Indiana 89, Faireld 56:
Sara Scalia scored 27 points to lead the fourth-seeded Hoosiers (25-5), who led the Stags by four at halftime, but
steadily pulled away after the break. Notre Dame 81, Kent
State 67: The No. 2 seed Fighting Irish (27-6) rode Sonia Citron’s 29 points and Hannah Hidalgo’s 11 assists into the second round. Oklahoma 73, Florida Gulf
Coast 70: Uju Ezeudu’s 3pointer at the buzzer bounced off the front of the rim and the fifth-seeded Sooners (23-9) escaped the Eagles’ upset effort. Mississippi 67, Marquette
55: Madison Scott scored 20 points and the seventhseeded Rebels (24-8) moved on. Ole Miss pulled away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Golden Eagles, 18-9. Albany Region 2 Creighton 87, UNLV 73:
Lauren Jensen scored 25 points, Emma Ronsiek added 23 and the seventhseeded Bluejays (26-5) sank 15 3-pointers. Portland Region 3 Kansas 81, Michigan 72
(OT):
pointer Zakiyah with 12 Franklin’s seconds left 3for (20-12) the No. forced 8 seed overtime Jayhawks and Kansas dominated the extra period. Connecticut 86, Jackson
State 64: Paige Bueckers scored 28 points and freshman Ashlynn Shade added 26 as the third-seeded Huskies (30-5) helped coach Geno Auriemma celebrate his 70th birthday. Syracuse 74, Arizona 69:
The sixth-seeded Orange (24-7) moved on behind Dyaisha Fair’s 32 points and her 3-pointer with 1:14 to go that gave Syracuse its first lead since the opening minutes. USC, 87, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 55: Freshman Juju Watkins scored 23 points to lead the topseeded Trojans (27-5), who raced to a 21-4 lead in the first quarter. Portland Region 4 N.C. State 64, Chattanooga
45: Aziaha James led the third-seeded Wolfpack (28-6) and the N.C. State defense limited the Mocs to 33.3% shooting from the field. Tennessee 92, Green
Bay 63: The No. 6 seed Lady Vols (20-12) rolled into the second round with Rickea Jackson’s 26 points and nine rebounds in the first game back in Raleigh, N.C., for Tennessee coach Kellie Harper, who coached N.C. State for four seasons. Gonzaga 75, UC Irvine 56:
The No. 4 seed Bulldogs (31-3) took control in the second quarter and pulled away.
Yvonne Ejim’s 25 points paced Gonzaga.