Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year Comes Up Big in Semifinal Victory Saturday Night
March 07, 2026 11:34 PM | Women's Basketball
KANSAS CITY – West Virginia needed the Big 12's Defensive Player of the Year to make the play of the game to advance to its first conference championship game since 2021.
It was Jordan Harrison's steal with a second left as Jade Masogayo was trying to get into position to take a game-winning shot that preserved the Mountaineers' 48-47 victory over Colorado in the second Big 12 Championship semifinal game at T-Mobile Center.
TCU outlasted pesky Kansas State 74-62 in today's first semifinal contest.
Harrison's two free throws with 16 seconds left gave West Virginia a 48-45 lead, but Kierra Wheeler was called for a foul on Desiree Wooten's 3-point field goal try, giving her free throws to try and tie the game with 2.7 seconds left.
Wooten missed the first, made the second, tried to miss the third but made it, which presented West Virginia with on an opportunity to inbound the ball and run out the clock.
Mountaineer coach Mark Kellogg called a timeout, which advances the ball to midcourt in the women's game, and Gia Cooke was fouled by Wooten before the ball could be put into play.
Cooke missed both free throws, which opened the door for Colorado coach J.R. Payne to use her final timeout and put her team in a good spot to get off a game-winning shot attempt with the inbounds play coming near her bench.
West Virginia was in a similar situation earlier this year when it lost to TCU 51-50 in Morgantown on a 3-point basket at the top of the key coming from a side-court inbounds play.
On that occasion, Harrison was only able to watch helplessly as the ball sailed through the net.
Tonight, she took matters into her own hands. As soon as she saw the ball go to Masogayo near the top of the key, and Masogayo turned toward the basket, Harrison pounced on the basketball, knocking it away from her as time expired.
It was purely an instinctive reaction made by a senior playing her 131st career college basketball game.
"When I saw the number on the back of her jersey (turn toward the basket) I just went," Harrison explained afterward. "The coaches didn't tell me to do anything - I just went for the ball."
In a game that had far more misses than makes, this one was going to come down to a veteran player making an instinctive basketball play to win it.
It was Harrison who pressed the issue at the outset when her teammates were struggling to make shots against Colorado's length and physicality. Harrison scored nine of the team's 13 first-quarter points, and then keyed the game's best offensive spurt in the third quarter with a pair of baskets that helped West Virginia build a 12-point lead.
"I just wanted to be aggressive; I was open, so I was just trying to make the shots until my teammates got into a rhythm," she said.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
It was Cooke's 3-point basket from the top of the key with 38 seconds remaining that put West Virginia back in the lead, but the Mountaineers connected on just 30.5% of their field goal attempts and missed several close ones near the basket.
Harrison has seen these types of games before and predicts more of them could be on the horizon as West Virginia advances deeper into March Madness.
"We are going to have more games like that coming up with the NCAA Tournament and the championship game tomorrow," she observed. "We need that type of experience so when we approach it again, we'll be ready."
West Virginia, now 26-6 overall with tonight's victory, keeps alive its hopes of having NCAA Tournament first-and-second-round games at Hope Coliseum.
The Mountaineers came into tonight's action as a No. 5-seed in the latest ESPN.com Bracketology projections, but that was before losses by Ohio State, Michigan and North Carolina in conference tournament games earlier today.
A victory over 10th-ranked TCU in tomorrow's championship game would leave no doubt about the Mountaineers earning a top seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
Defeating a team that has beaten it twice already this year to cut down the nets tomorrow night would be doubly sweet.
Tomorrow's championship game will be televised nationally on ESPN. Tipoff is 5 p.m. EST.
It was Jordan Harrison's steal with a second left as Jade Masogayo was trying to get into position to take a game-winning shot that preserved the Mountaineers' 48-47 victory over Colorado in the second Big 12 Championship semifinal game at T-Mobile Center.
TCU outlasted pesky Kansas State 74-62 in today's first semifinal contest.
Harrison's two free throws with 16 seconds left gave West Virginia a 48-45 lead, but Kierra Wheeler was called for a foul on Desiree Wooten's 3-point field goal try, giving her free throws to try and tie the game with 2.7 seconds left.
Wooten missed the first, made the second, tried to miss the third but made it, which presented West Virginia with on an opportunity to inbound the ball and run out the clock.
Mountaineer coach Mark Kellogg called a timeout, which advances the ball to midcourt in the women's game, and Gia Cooke was fouled by Wooten before the ball could be put into play.
Cooke missed both free throws, which opened the door for Colorado coach J.R. Payne to use her final timeout and put her team in a good spot to get off a game-winning shot attempt with the inbounds play coming near her bench.
West Virginia was in a similar situation earlier this year when it lost to TCU 51-50 in Morgantown on a 3-point basket at the top of the key coming from a side-court inbounds play.
On that occasion, Harrison was only able to watch helplessly as the ball sailed through the net.
Tonight, she took matters into her own hands. As soon as she saw the ball go to Masogayo near the top of the key, and Masogayo turned toward the basket, Harrison pounced on the basketball, knocking it away from her as time expired.
It was purely an instinctive reaction made by a senior playing her 131st career college basketball game.
"When I saw the number on the back of her jersey (turn toward the basket) I just went," Harrison explained afterward. "The coaches didn't tell me to do anything - I just went for the ball."
In a game that had far more misses than makes, this one was going to come down to a veteran player making an instinctive basketball play to win it.
It was Harrison who pressed the issue at the outset when her teammates were struggling to make shots against Colorado's length and physicality. Harrison scored nine of the team's 13 first-quarter points, and then keyed the game's best offensive spurt in the third quarter with a pair of baskets that helped West Virginia build a 12-point lead.
"I just wanted to be aggressive; I was open, so I was just trying to make the shots until my teammates got into a rhythm," she said.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
It was Cooke's 3-point basket from the top of the key with 38 seconds remaining that put West Virginia back in the lead, but the Mountaineers connected on just 30.5% of their field goal attempts and missed several close ones near the basket.
Harrison has seen these types of games before and predicts more of them could be on the horizon as West Virginia advances deeper into March Madness.
"We are going to have more games like that coming up with the NCAA Tournament and the championship game tomorrow," she observed. "We need that type of experience so when we approach it again, we'll be ready."
West Virginia, now 26-6 overall with tonight's victory, keeps alive its hopes of having NCAA Tournament first-and-second-round games at Hope Coliseum.
The Mountaineers came into tonight's action as a No. 5-seed in the latest ESPN.com Bracketology projections, but that was before losses by Ohio State, Michigan and North Carolina in conference tournament games earlier today.
A victory over 10th-ranked TCU in tomorrow's championship game would leave no doubt about the Mountaineers earning a top seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
Defeating a team that has beaten it twice already this year to cut down the nets tomorrow night would be doubly sweet.
Tomorrow's championship game will be televised nationally on ESPN. Tipoff is 5 p.m. EST.
Players Mentioned
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