Mountaineers rout turnover-prone Buffs

NO. 20 WEST VIRGINIA 73, CU WOMEN 46

Colorado’s Jade Masogayo, right, tries to drive against West Virginia’s Jordan Thomas during a Big 12 matchup at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va., on Wednesday. COURTESY OF CU ATHLETICS

Image

MORGANTOWN, W.VA.>> Having rallied to upset West Virginia in Boulder last month, the Colorado women’s basketball team knew the recipe for success Wednesday.

The Buffaloes certainly didn’t duplicate that recipe, however, as they were routed by the No. 20 Mountaineers, 73-46, at WVU Coliseum.

CU had a whopping 30 turnovers — the most for the program in 18 years — in suffering its worst loss since a 27-point defeat at Utah on Dec. 14, 2022.

The best turnover-inducing team in the Big 12, West Virginia (14-3, 4-2 Big 12) dominated the Buffs (12-5, 3-3) throughout the final three quarters, outscoring them 58-24.

Overall, the Mountaineers scored 39 points off of CU’s 30 turnovers, 15 of which were steals. WVU came in averaging 14.8 steals per game.

Frida Formann led CU with 11 points, but West Virginia had four players in double figures, led by Sydney Shaw and Ja’na Quinerly with 19 points each.

CU, which rallied from 16 down to stun the Mountaineers 65-60 in Boulder on Dec. 21, got off to a great start Wednesday. Nyamer Diew had nine points in the first quarter, including seven in a 14-0 run that gave the Buffs a 22-12 lead.

That run ended with a pair of Diew free throws with 1 minute, 14 seconds left in the first quarter. From that point, the Buffs scored just 24 points the rest of the game.

CU was outscored 16-2 in the second quarter, racking up 10 turnovers and going 1-for-14 from the floor. West Virginia wasn’t much better until suddenly getting hot and closing the first half on an 11-0 run in the final 2:26 to take a 31-24 lead into intermission.

Formann drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Buffs a brief 32-31 lead early in the third quarter, but that was followed by a scoring drought of 6:12. A 15-0 West Virginia run during that stretch changed the game, giving it a 46-32 lead.

CU did close the third quarter with six straight points to going into the final frame trailing by just nine, 49-40, but that momentum didn’t last long. The Mountaineers opened the fourth with a 14-0 run to put the game away.

NOTABLE>> Formann topped the 1,500-point mark for her career and now has 1,504, ranking 13th in program history. … CU committed 30 turnovers for the first time since having 34 in a loss at Texas on Jan. 13, 2007. … CU’s second quarter (two points) and fourth quarter (six points) were its two lowest-scoring quarters of the season. … Former Buff Kylee Blacksten had 10 points and six rebounds for West Virginia. … CU played its third game in a row without freshman Tabitha Betson (concussion).