West Virginia women’s basketball made a fourth-quarter surge to stay perfect in Big 12 play, winning over Kansas.

The Mountaineers started off a two-game road trip with a 79-72 win over the Jayhawks to move to 12-2 on the season and 2-0 in the Big 12. Kansas fell to 10-4 and to 0-2 in conference.

Kansas led for most of the first half, but the Mountaineers stuck around, and it was a one-point game at the half. Then, WVU started to pull away in the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run to start the quarter.

WVU’s surge was led by guard Gia Cooke’s sharp shooting from behind the arc. Cooke hit back-to-back 3-pointers, handing the Mountaineers their biggest lead of the day, 65-54.

Cooke led WVU in scoring a tied season-high 24 points on six for nine shooting from deep. This was Cooke’s fifth 20-plus point game of the season.

“I hit shots,” Cooke said. “I hit shots.”

Once Cooke’s shots started to fall, the Mountaineers perimeter attack started to get into rhythm. WVU knocked down four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The Mountaineers drained a season-high 13 3-pointers total, shooting a season-high 48%.

“We hit a lot of shots, and we’ve been working on it,” Cooke said. “We’ve been getting a lot of shots up in all our guard post workouts and stuff like that. We just really been trying to hone in on just getting a lot of shots.”

Guard Sydney Shaw nailed a wide-open 3-pointer, making it a 17-point lead for WVU with 6:17 to play. Shaw had 18 points and passed 1,000 career points earlier in the second half. Forward Carter McCray also had 16, which was a season high for the Wisconsin transfer.

Kansas did put up a fight for most of the game.

The Jayhawks received some good news just before tip. Jayhawks’ head coach Brandon Schneider announced 5-star freshman Jaliya Davis would make a return from injury to start the new year. Davis missed the past couple of games with a foot injury. She immediately made her presence felt and had nine of Kansas’ first 12 points.

Davis led Kansas in scoring with 21 points on the afternoon.

Kansas’ strong first half was due to Davis, but the Mountaineers also had a couple of players in foul trouble. Guard Jordan Harrison and forward Kierra Wheeler both had two fouls early and had to sit out most of the first half. Kansas took advantage and jumped out to an early lead.

WVU’s defense also clamped down in the second half. The Mountaineers finished with 13 steals and forced 22 turnovers. Forcing turnovers has been a strong suit for WVU all season. The Mountaineers also had seven blocks. Shaw had three of those.

With the offense rolling and the defense creating more opportunities, WVU rallied to win its six-straight game in a row, after losing back-to-back games. The Mountaineers picked up its first win on the two-game road trip. WVU heads to Kansas State on Jan. 4.

“We just told ourselves to keep our foot on the gas,” Cooke said. “I think that we did that very well… I think we’ve just been ready for this moment. We just wanted to keep it going, especially with these two road games. We want to come home with both of them, so I’m just excited for us and happy for this one.”