Associated Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Aaliyah Moore scored 20 points to lift fifth-ranked Texas to a 78-73 victory over No. 12 West Virginia in the Gulf Coast Showcase championship on Sunday.

Madison Booker added 19 points, Kyla Oldacre 13 and Justice Carlton 10 for the Longhorns.

J.J. Quinerly scored 29 points, Jordan Harrison 20 and Sydney Shaw 10 for West Virginia (8-1).

Texas (7-0) had numerous 11-point leads, but a 10-1 Mountaineers run drew them within 48-46 after a Kyah Watson layup.

West Virginia made its run when Moore picked up her fourth foul with 4:51 left in the third quarter.

The Longhorns pushed the lead back up to 72-62 with 1:36 left, but a 3-pointer by Shaw cut it to 74-73 with 43 seconds left.

That’s all the Mountaineers would score.

Takeaways

Texas: Booker cored four of her team’s last six points to seal the win.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers look ready to take the next step or two after taking Texas to the wire. All of West Virginia’s wins are by double digits.

Key moment

Carlton stole the ball with 7 seconds left and clinched the victory with two free throws with 1.6 seconds left.

Key stat

Texas had an 18-5 edge in offensive rebounds.

Up next

Texas will at Notre Dame on Thursday.

West Virginia will play East Tennessee State on Saturday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

The recruiting calendar will shift this coming season with the early signing period opening the first week of December instead of being positioned in the middle of the month.

The new date for the 2025 class is set for Dec. 4-6 on the 2024 calendar, moved up from the Dec. 20-22 window that was in place for the 2024 cycle. That small window gives college coaches the chance to sign players in their recruiting class to letters of intent and effectively close the door on the recruiting process.

But what does that shift forward mean for college coaches?

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said that the adjustment won’t have a major impact for the Mountaineers in large part because of how the coaching staff has gone about constructing their recruiting classes in recent years.

And that is tied to the fact that the summer official visits have been the critical component to assembling classes with the bulk of players committing during that timeframe.

For example, out of the 22 commitments for West Virginia in the 2025 class, 13 came from those official visits during the month of June with only one of those pledges coming outside of that month.

That has been the formula that has been successfully utilized by the coaching staff is recent years and while it will limit the ability to bring late pieces on visits during the early part of December it shouldn’t change much to the general operation.

“So, it just kind of moves it up,” Brown said.

Now, where the real adjustment will be made is the fact that a dead period will now be in effect from Dec. 2-8 and Dec. 9-22 will represent a quiet period which means coaches can host recruits but can’t have any in-person contact away from campus.

That means that the focus will shift from the traditional recruiting of high school prospects to an emphasis on the transfer portal. That window will open Dec. 9 and stay that way until Jan. 7 to recruit transfer options.

“You’re going to be focused more on portal kind of things,” Brown said.

Associated Press

ESTERO, Fla. (AP) — Sydney Shaw scored 20 points and made four 3-pointers, JJ Quinerly added 14 points and No. 12 West Virginia handed Boise State its first loss, 82-47 on Saturday in the Gulf Coast Showcase.

West Virginia advances to the championship game on Sunday, while Boise State plays for third place. The Mountaineers have started 8-0 in back-to-back seasons after last year’s 11-0 beginning.

Quinerly also had three steals to help West Virginia reach double figures in that category in every game this season. The Mountaineers also forced 20-plus turnovers for the eighth straight game.

Boise State was held to just six points in the first and third quarters.

West Virginia went on two 10-0 runs in the first quarter to build a 16-point lead. The Mountaineers led by double figures the rest of the way. It was 45-23 at halftime then Quinerly scored four straight points to begin a 9-0 run that ended in a 32-point lead.

Freshman Jordan Thomas, coming off her first career double-double, had 10 points and six rebounds for West Virginia.

Elodie Lalotte scored 11 points for Boise State (7-1). Teryn Gardner addd 10.

West Virginia was coming off an 89-54 victory over High Point on Friday to begin the tournament. The Mountaineers led by as many as 39 points and forced 22 turnovers in that one.

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball