West Virginia Opens Play at Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament Friday
March 05, 2026 08:47 PM | Women's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women's basketball team (24-6, 14-4 Big 12) opens postseason play in the Quarterfinal Round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 6. The No. 2-seeded Mountaineers will face No. 10 Arizona State. Tipoff inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
The contest against Arizona State will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Brenda VanLangen and Anne O'Neil on the call. The game can also be heard on the Varsity Network app, with Andrew Caridi and John Antonik bringing you live coverage. Live stats and game notes will be available on WVUsports.com.
The Mountaineers enter the tournament as a two-seed for the third time in program history. WVU is 4-2 all-time as the seed, entering the tournament as the seed in 2014 and 2021. On both occasions, the Mountaineers advanced to the championship game, where they lost to Baylor.
WVU has advanced to the title game three times across 12 seasons, most recently making an appearance in 2021. WVU also reached the finals in 2014 and 2017. WVU won the conference tournament during the 2017 season as a six seed and defeated the top three seeds to collect the program's first conference title. The Mountaineers are 13-11 all-time in tournament play and have added six trips to the semifinals.
Head coach Mark Kellogg has reached 23 regular-season wins in all of his first three seasons in Morgantown. West Virginia finished with the second-best record in the Big 12 regular season at 14-4.
WVU reached 14 Big 12 conference wins in a season for just the third time in 14 seasons. The four conference losses signify the second fewest in Big 12 play and the least since losing just two during the 2014 season.
Head Coach Mark Kellogg looks to become the first coach in program history to win 25 games in three straight seasons. His 74 wins across the last three seasons are the third most behind 78 (2014-16) and 77 (2010-12). Kellogg has never finished lower than fourth in the final regular-season standings. West Virginia is 2-3 in Q1, 8-3 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3 and 11-0 in Q4 games.
West Virginia has four players scoring double figures this season, led by Gia Cooke with 14.9 points per game. She has scored double figures in 26 contests and has scored 20+ points in eight games. Wheeler has been a force scoring and on the glass with 13.7 points and a team-leading 7.4 rebounds. On the year, she has recorded eight double-doubles.
Senior guard Jordan Harrison (12.9) and Sydney Shaw (11.9) are also averaging double figures this season. Shaw is leading the Mountaineers in threes this season at 41.7% and is making 2.6 per game. Riley Makalusky has also found her rhythm from beyond the arc in conference play, shooting 52.3% with 23 makes on 44 attempts.
Harrison averaged 6.0 assists per game in conference play. The mark is the third best in the conference. She is the conference's steals leader with 68 in 18 games and is the only player averaging more than 2.5 per game at 3.8. She is the nation's premier defender after earning a spot on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Late-Season Team.
The contest against Arizona State will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Brenda VanLangen and Anne O'Neil on the call. The game can also be heard on the Varsity Network app, with Andrew Caridi and John Antonik bringing you live coverage. Live stats and game notes will be available on WVUsports.com.
The Mountaineers enter the tournament as a two-seed for the third time in program history. WVU is 4-2 all-time as the seed, entering the tournament as the seed in 2014 and 2021. On both occasions, the Mountaineers advanced to the championship game, where they lost to Baylor.
WVU has advanced to the title game three times across 12 seasons, most recently making an appearance in 2021. WVU also reached the finals in 2014 and 2017. WVU won the conference tournament during the 2017 season as a six seed and defeated the top three seeds to collect the program's first conference title. The Mountaineers are 13-11 all-time in tournament play and have added six trips to the semifinals.
Head coach Mark Kellogg has reached 23 regular-season wins in all of his first three seasons in Morgantown. West Virginia finished with the second-best record in the Big 12 regular season at 14-4.
WVU reached 14 Big 12 conference wins in a season for just the third time in 14 seasons. The four conference losses signify the second fewest in Big 12 play and the least since losing just two during the 2014 season.
Head Coach Mark Kellogg looks to become the first coach in program history to win 25 games in three straight seasons. His 74 wins across the last three seasons are the third most behind 78 (2014-16) and 77 (2010-12). Kellogg has never finished lower than fourth in the final regular-season standings. West Virginia is 2-3 in Q1, 8-3 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3 and 11-0 in Q4 games.
West Virginia has four players scoring double figures this season, led by Gia Cooke with 14.9 points per game. She has scored double figures in 26 contests and has scored 20+ points in eight games. Wheeler has been a force scoring and on the glass with 13.7 points and a team-leading 7.4 rebounds. On the year, she has recorded eight double-doubles.
Senior guard Jordan Harrison (12.9) and Sydney Shaw (11.9) are also averaging double figures this season. Shaw is leading the Mountaineers in threes this season at 41.7% and is making 2.6 per game. Riley Makalusky has also found her rhythm from beyond the arc in conference play, shooting 52.3% with 23 makes on 44 attempts.
Harrison averaged 6.0 assists per game in conference play. The mark is the third best in the conference. She is the conference's steals leader with 68 in 18 games and is the only player averaging more than 2.5 per game at 3.8. She is the nation's premier defender after earning a spot on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Late-Season Team.
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