No. 16 West Virginia opened up their season at home with a dominant 85-41 win over Towson on Tuesday.
The Mountaineers forced 32 turnovers, which was tied for the most they’ve forced under head coach Mark Kellogg. WVU scored 42 points off of those turnovers.
Junior guard Jordan Harrison led all scorers with 23 points. She also had a team-leading eight assists, six steals to go along with two rebounds. Two other Mountaineers finished with double-figure points: Auburn transfer Sydney Shaw with 19 and JJ Quinerly with 14.
To start the game, Towson scored first with two free throws, but the lead didn’t last long. Harrison scored the Mountaineers’ first points of the season, a three-pointer, which started a small 5-0 run.
After another WVU foul, Towson was back at the line. Semaya Turner hit her first attempt. After her second attempt missed, Towson got the rebound and scored, tying the game at five.
The two teams continued to play back-and-forth in the early going. With just under five minutes left in the first quarter, the game was tied at 11.
Coming out of the media timeout, both teams struggled offensively. West Virginia hit a free throw but did not make a field goal for over two minutes, while Towson was in a complete scoring drought lasting over three minutes.
At the end of the first quarter, the Mountaineers held a narrow one-point lead, 14-13. They forced seven Towson turnovers, which turned into seven points for them.
The Tigers took the lead just under three minutes into the second quarter, 18-16, but WVU took it right back with a three from Shaw. They continued to build that lead, going on a 10-0 run, going up 26-18, forcing Towson to call a timeout.
With the first half winding down, the Mountaineers continued to build a solid lead, capitalizing off of Tiger turnovers. At halftime, they led 38-25.
Towson committed 17 turnovers in the first half, which led to 20 WVU points. Harrison had 18 points, shooting six of 11 from the field and two of three from three.
West Virginia picked up right where it left off in the latter half of the second quarter, while Towson struggled at the beginning of the second half. They soon picked it up, bringing the deficit back to 13.
With under four minutes left in the third quarter, WVU went on an 8-0 run. Shaw hit back-to-back threes, helping the Mountaineers go up 53-32.
Heading into the fourth quarter, WVU led 65-37. The Mountaineers didn’t allow a Towson score for roughly the first five minutes of the quarter.
They led by more than 40 points as the Tigers approached 30 turnovers. In the end, they took home an 85-41 victory.
West Virginia hosts Niagara on Saturday at 2 p.m. EST in their next contest.
