Picture supplied by BlueGoldNews.com WVU's Jordan Harrison drives to the basket towards Baylor guard Sarah Andrews on Saturday on the Coliseum in Morgantown.
MORGANTOWN — As West Virginia's postgame interviews wrapped up on the finish of some of the basic ladies's basketball video games ever performed on the Coliseum, there have been tears on the rostrum.
If there was any justice on this planet, they might have been tears of pleasure, not disappointment, as a result of it was a sport the place Mountaineers JJ Quinerly actually performed his coronary heart out as he led West Virginia to what regarded like a surefire victory .
For 39 half minutes it was like she was the one participant on the ground, scoring a game-high 33 factors towards Baylor, taking management of the sport on the finish. With WVU trailing the Bears by 10 with Three:17 left.
However by no means get out of the sport when Quinerly nonetheless has breath. He hit 2 free throws, then a jumper. After Jordan Harrison scored on a layup, Quinerly stepped again and hit one other layup after which calmly drained a Three-pointer to present the Mountaineers a one-point lead with 1:04 left.
They turned Baylor again and again and over, 24 whole within the sport, 12 of which had been within the first quarter.
However the world was about to be turned the wrong way up in a sport that WVU would lose within the worst potential means, 66-65.
There was loads of motion however no scoring and WVU regained possession however one way or the other couldn't get off a shot earlier than 30 seconds to present the ball again to Baylor.
The Bears ran a play that was well-intentioned however completely botched. Sarah Andrews flicked the ball over Jana Van Gytenbeek's head and out of bounds. WVU had the ball with simply 7 seconds to guard.
No sweat. Take it inbounds, foul. And who would you like on the road capturing free throws than Quinerly, so the inbounds got here to her.
However the basketball gods frowned on the second as Quinerly by no means gained full management, had the ball bounce off his knee and roll towards the rim. Baylor's Jada Walker rushed to the nook and scooped up the ball and noticed a transparent run to the basket.
She entered with Quinerly desperately making an attempt to get into some kind of defensive place. As Walker went for the shot, Quinerly hit it. The ball went up the rim and stayed there for what appeared like an eternity.
Baylor now needed to shoot free throws, however Walker's neck was injured on the play and after a lot speaking and replays, Van Gytenbeek was despatched to the free throw line to shoot her free throws.
Because the 5,616 in attendance roared loudly to distract him, Van Gytenbeek calmly made each free throws.
To make issues worse, with four.6 seconds left, Quinerly fouled out.
So she was not an choice. WVU bought the ball to Jordan Harrison, who tried to repeat his heroics at Kansas State, which despatched that sport into time beyond regulation. She went coast-to-coast like she did then, however this time Baylor had three gamers again and her layup try was blocked.
What occurred?
“The ball went within the air; I went to catch him and beat him just a little. It occurs. You by no means know when issues will occur or when you’ll make a mistake. It occurred and so they capitalized on it,” she mentioned. “We didn't need it to occur, but it surely did.”
Someplace, a witch's curse had taken maintain.
Instantly, you go from a sport you'll bear in mind for a lifetime to a second, a play, that may stick with you perpetually.
“That's simply me. I'm an individual who will, irrespective of what number of factors I placed on the board…” he stopped there, took a deep breath, tears started to nicely up in his eyes. “I’ll at all times take into consideration the errors I made throughout a sport.”
He wiped his eyes and the press convention as if the sport was over.
The three-pointer he made would have been the game-winner if this had been a film known as “Hoosiers” or “The Pure”however there is no such thing as a script for all times and transfer on.
“Everybody will wish to speak about this turnover of late. It was an unlucky circumstance of late,” WVU coach Mark Kellogg mentioned. “It got here all the way down to that play. With out her, we wouldn't be in it.”
Definitely, everybody knew who was the very best participant on the sphere.
“I'm not saying we didn't need to win, however Quinerly had such an unbelievable sport,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen mentioned. “She was so good tonight.”