Mountaineers Open 50th Season with Dominant Win
Morgantown, WV - The West Virginia University women's basketball program opened its 50th season Tuesday, also marking the debut of head coach Mark Kellog, with a win over Loyola-Maryland Greyhounds (0-1) Tuesday night 74-39.
"It’s a win, it’s one," Kellog said. "I try not to be the guy that gets too high or too low. I mean, it’s special, I’ll always remember it. I don’t want to downplay it too much, but I also don’t want it to be about me there’s a much bigger picture coming up. I’ll reflect very briefly I guess maybe tonight but it will be right back to watching film and figuring out how we can get a little bit better, but we’ve loved it here, we’ve enjoyed it here it was everything I wanted it to be.
West Virginia jumped out to a 15-6 lead midway through the first quarter. JJ Quinerly hit a pair of threes and got a steal in the backcourt for a bucket and the foul for an early nine points.
The Mountaineers extended their lead to 10 with 3:22 left in the first quarter but Kelly Ratigan hit consecutive threes as part of an 8-0 Loyola run to cut the WVU lead to two, 18-16, at the end of the first quarter.
West Virginia ramped up its defense in the second quarter, forcing eight turnovers and held Loyola-Maryland to 1-8 shooting from the field to build a 17-point lead heading into halftime, 35-18.
"I thought we had a good start to the game. Got up 10-ish, and then I think they hit a three. We had a couple of terrible turnovers that I think they converted into points there," Kellog said. "So, it was just that one little two-and-a-half-minute stretch where we kind of fell apart offensively – took some bad shots, turned it over and then led to some offense for them. We didn’t do a whole lot different [in the second quarter] just settled in."
West Viriginia continued to add to its lead after shooting 8-12 from the field, including 4-5 from three-point range. Quinerly led the Mountaineers with eight points in the period and Lauren Field put up five points to extend the Mountaineers lead 57-30 through three quarters.
The Mountaineers coasted to the 74-39 victory. Quinerly led all-scorers with 19 points behind a career-high four three-pointers.
"She shot it really well today," Kellog said. She’s just so dynamic. She’s the fastest kid I’ve ever coached and her ability to go from 0-100 and then stop again and then stop again at zero is just the next level. I’ve just never seen a kid that can go so quick and stop so quick."
Sophomore transfer Jordan Harrison was second on the team in scoring with 18 points on 5-8 shooting from the field, including 3-6 from behind the arc
"She’s getting more comfortable here," Kellog said. "She was freshman of the year in our league for a reason. She got much better as the year went on, but she was +37 today on the plus minus. She’s just a floor general but she’s a leader and she knows what I want. While the other ones we’re still working on that because we’re new, Jordan has been the one whose been with me, so we just kind of have that connection right now but she’s just a sophomore and only played one year of college basketball. But she’s a dynamic little player and her and Quinerly are going to be pretty good, I think."
The Mountaineers are on the road for game two to take on the Pitt Panthers in the Backyard Brawl Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
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