West Virginia women’s basketball had another second-half comeback to pick up its third Big 12 win.

The Mountaineers took the lead in the final minute to beat Kansas State 60-58, moving to a perfect 3-0 in conference play and winning both games on the road to start 2026.

WVU moved to 13-2 on the season and has now won seven straight games. The Wildcats fall to 1-2 in the conference and 8-8 overall.

“We haven’t been in many one-possession games late, so getting to work on that,” head coach Mark Kellogg said. “We played against zone for 40 minutes, which we hadn’t seen, really thought they might do that to us.”

With 32 seconds left and a tied 56-56 game, Kellogg called a timeout. The ball was given to Gia Cooke, who drove and chucked up a shot through traffic. The ball bounced and hit each side of the rim, falling in to take the lead, 58-56.

“She’s kind of got the gene, I guess, if you will,” Kellogg said on Cooke being clutch. “There’s no moment really too big for that kid. We kind of drew some things up and kind of told her, ‘Hey, be ready to punch that gap if you get one.’ And to her credit, she made the big shot.”

On the other end, Kansas State had a costly mistake and stepped out of bounds, ending the back-and-forth game, with a couple of free throws from WVU.

Cooke, who was the leading scorer in the last couple of games, was quiet for most of the game. Guard Sydney Shaw was quiet, too. Cooke had 12 and Shaw just six.

After back-to-back big 3-pointer games, WVU relied more on the interior players through its forwards, Kierra Wheeler and Carter McCray. The Mountaineers made just three 3-pointers and were 21% from deep.

Most of the offensive production went through McCray and Wheeler. Wheeler led WVU with 18 points, with McCray right behind with 15.

Late in the third quarter, the guards started to heat up. Shaw hit a 3-pointer, and then Gia Cooke found her way on the inside for a layup, tying the game for the first time since the first quarter, 39-39. WVU then took the lead on a layup from Wheeler, capping a 9-0 run, 43-39, with 49 seconds left in the third.

The Mountaineers started to wear out Kansas State, causing the Wildcats to make some careless mistakes. WVU forced 16 turnovers of its own in the low-scoring affair. WVU went on another fourth-quarter run, scoring six out of the gates, 51-44.

The Wildcats hung around. Guard Tess Heal answered the run with six points of her own to help an 8-0 run to take back the lead, 52-51. Heal led Kansas State with 16 points and fouled out late in the fourth quarter.