West Virginia women’s basketball had not had the opportunity to truly showcase they early season success under first-year head coach Mark Kellogg. That changed Monday.
In a matchup against No. 25 Penn State, the Mountaineers had their first real opportunity of the season and they took full advantage of it, beating the Lady Lions 83-65 at the WVU Coliseum on Monday night.
“They worked really hard. We’re only in game eight as a group, so to see that performance eight games in is pretty special for me and for us. And I think we’ve come a long way in a short period of time,” Kellogg said.
“I also hope this isn’t the win we talk about late in the year, I hope it’s not the only top-25 win that we have. I hope there’s a lot more coming down the line but this is certainly something to build off of just because the quality of Penn State and the operation they have.”
West Virginia (8-0) has made their mark throughout non-conference playing pressure defense, and that pressure was too much for Penn State. The Mountaineers forced 26 Penn State turnovers — their most in a game this season — and turned that into 31 points in the win.
“That’s a quality team, that’s a high powered offense. I thought we were dialed to the scouting report, the game plan, the attention to detail,” Kellogg said.
WVU got off to a slow start shooting, making two of their first eight shots, as they trailed 9-5 early. They responded out of a media timeout with an 8-0 run, taking a 13-9 lead, as they began to turn up the pressure on the Lady Lions.
Penn State ended the quarter with a two-point advantage, but that didn’t last for long. In the opening 1:31 of the second quarter, WVU took a 23-20 lead as Jayla Hemingway made a three-pointer and layup consecutively. The Lady Lions and Mountaineers traded buckets before Penn State squared things up at 29-29 with 3:54 to play in the first half.
The Lady Lions’ stretch to get back in the game was slowed down as Lauren Fields threw up a three-pointer from almost the logo as the shot clock expired, helping WVU keep pace with the Lady Lions’ 7-3 run.
“When it left my hands I could tell it was going to go in,” Field said. “I can’t do nothing else but shoot so I shot it.”
From that point on, a switch flipped and WVU turned defense into offense.
West Virginia ended the first half on a 12-2 run, with six of those points coming off of turnovers. In total, WVU’s defense forced 13 Penn State turnovers in the first half, leading to 16 points as WVU held a 41-31 lead at halftime.
“I thought once we settled in there in the second quarter, got that 10-point lead, and we knew they could press, they typically press a lot, so we were prepared for that. We wanted to make them pay on the back end which I thought we did,” Kellogg said.
West Virginia had 26 of their points in the first half come at the free throw line or in the paint, a trend which continued early on in the third quarter.
Kyah Watson scored the first fur points of the second half for WVU on two free throws and a layup, before Fields hit a three-pointer. WVU’s lead ballooned to as many as 16, going on a 7-0 run, with all points coming at the line or on layups on the run.
Penn State would not go away without a fight as they turned up the pressure for themselves defensively, ending the quarter down 11. The Lady Lions gave WVU a taste of their own medicine, forcing seven turnovers, leading to five points, while they also had eight points in the paint.
In the fourth quarter, the Mountaineers turned to their duo of guards JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison. The two scored a combined 36 points on the night, with 12 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Kellogg’s two leading guards were also tasked with guarding Penn State’s Makenna Marisa and Shay Ciezki.
“The team goes as those two guards go. We knew if we shut them down, they didn’t really have much to come with. So that was the goal, and I think we executed pretty well,” Harrison said.
The pair of Lady Lions came into Monday averaging 17 and 15.5 points per game respectively. They combined for eight total points, going 3 for 14 from the field, and turning the ball over nine times.
Penn State attempted to get back into the game in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to as few as nine with 8:04 to play, but that is as close as they would get. The Mountaineers used Quinerly and Harrison to score 12 of the 18 points over the final 10 minutes, while they also pitched in defensively with three steals to seal the win.
“Our team word is resiliency so it (the fourth quarter) was some of it. We talked before the game, when adversity hits, just freaking compete. Keep competing,” Kellogg said.
Five Mountaineers reached dobule-digits in scoring as Quinerly led all WVU scorers with 20 points, while Watson had 15, Harrison had 14, Fields had 12 and Tavy Diggs had 10.
The Mountaineers will return to the court on Sunday against Delaware State at 2:00 p.m. from the WVU Coliseum.
“I don’t want it to be about me, I want it to be about our program. I want recruits to see this, I want people to get excited about what we’re doing here. I want to represent the state the right way which I think we do,” Kellogg said. “I just want to grow the fanbase, I want people to get excited about what’s going on here in Mountaineer women’s basketball because I think the product is pretty special already.”
