Kansas State women top W Virginia 72-59 in Big 12 quarters

Mar 9, 2019, 07:46 pm

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Peyton Williams scored 22 points, Rachel Ranke added 21 and fifth-seeded Kansas State won its sixth-straight, defending West Virginia 72-59 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference tournament on Saturday.

Williams and Ranke both had critical 3-point plays in the fourth quarter, when Christianna Carr had two 3-pointers and the Wildcats' defense limited the Mountaineers to 3-of-8 shooting and seven turnovers.

Kansas State faces the winner between top-seeded and top-ranked Baylor and ninth-seeded Texas Tech in Sunday's semifinals.

Carr finished with 12 points for Kansas State (21-10), which split with West Virginia (20-10) in the regular season. The Mountaineers won the first meeting in late January 60-30 before K-State bounced back with a 90-79 win less than two weeks ago.

The Wildcats closed the first quarter with a 16-3 run to lead 21-8, but the Mountaineers scored the last nine points of the second quarter to cut the deficit to 35-29.

Naomi Davenport had a 3-pointer and 3-point play for West Virginia early in the third quarter to make it a one-point game. After the teams swapped baskets, K-State scored six straight and took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Davenport scored 14 and Kari Niblack 13 for West Virginia, which had 25 turnovers.