MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In an impressive display, Sydney Shaw recorded a personal best of 22 points, with 13 of those coming in the opening quarter, leading No. 18 West Virginia to a dominant 76-43 victory over Kansas on Wednesday night.

The Mountaineers set the tone early, holding the Jayhawks scoreless for over seven minutes at the start of the game. Shaw kicked things off by sinking a 3-pointer and later expanded on her scoring with three successful free throws after being fouled while attempting another 3. She contributed seven additional points, tallying 13 of the first 15 points for her team.

With just 44 seconds left in the first quarter, Jordan Harrison executed a three-point play, establishing an 18-0 lead for West Virginia. Kansas finally got on the scoreboard thanks to S’Mya Nichols’ three-point play with 35 seconds remaining, and Britta Harshaw added a 3-pointer just before the quarter ended, bringing the score to 18-6.

Kansas never managed to cut the deficit to single digits and went into halftime trailing 39-19 after Harrison hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds. The Mountaineers enjoyed their largest lead of the night at 72-37 with under three minutes still to play.

In the second half, JJ Quinerly emerged with 16 points, all scored after the break, including 12 points in the final quarter. Alongside Quinerly, Harrison also contributed 16 points to the West Virginia tally. Notably, Quinerly’s performance propelled him to sixth place on the WVU all-time scoring list with a total of 1,763 points.

For the Jayhawks, Nichols led the scoring effort with 12 points, but this was well below her average, contributing to Kansas posting their season’s lowest point total, falling short by 13 points.

West Virginia capitalized on Kansas’ struggles, scoring 36 points off 29 turnovers and recording 17 steals. The Mountaineers forced their opponents into more than 20 turnovers for the 18th time this season, with an average of 25 turnovers and 15 steals per game. Furthermore, West Virginia had a strong performance on the boards, outrebounding Kansas 36-25.

Looking ahead, West Virginia will take on Houston on Saturday, while Kansas is set to face Cincinnati.