MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — On January 10, West Virginia squandered a 19-point third-quarter lead and suffered its first and only road loss this season at Iowa State, 74-64.
Leading up to the rematch Saturday inside the WVU Coliseum, first-year Mountaineers’ head coach Mark Kellogg offered his team a message.
“Losing that game and knowing we should’ve beat them gave me that revenge feeling. Coach up on the board — payback is always a … I can’t say that word,” said WVU guard JJ Quinerly. “We had it in our mind that we’d come out and beat them.”
Thanks in large part to another memorable outing from Quinerly, No. 24 West Virginia exacted its measure of revenge with a 84-78 victory before a crowd of 4,905 that Kellogg felt made an impact.
“The crowd was phenomenal. We needed that,” Kellogg said. “That was fun and we heard them on defense, heard them when we scored and heard them on the officials. Kind of helped will us to that victory.”
Quinerly led all players with 31 points, 22 of which she scored in the second half. She added a game-high five steals for good measure.
“Just being aggressive, looking for my shot and being confident in myself,” said Quinerly, who was honored pregame for recently scoring 1,000 career points in less than three full seasons at WVU.
Thirteen of Quinerly’s points came in the fourth quarter, which WVU began with a 63-58 lead.
The advantage grew to nine after fellow Mountaineer guard Jordan Harrison made two three-pointers in 49 seconds, enabling West Virginia (17-2, 5-2) to go in front 73-64 with 6:41 remaining.
Just as it did in the first meeting this season, Iowa State (12-7, 6-3) came charging back.
The Cyclones rattled off the next seven points, five of which Addy Brown accounted for, including a layup off a turnover that trimmed the ISU deficit to two with 3:54 left.
Quinerly answered with a pivotal triple for a five-point margin, and WVU’s lead was still five at 79-74 when Nyamer Diew made two free throws to bring the Cyclones to within a possession at the 1:43 mark.
ISU got the ball back with a chance to tie or pull to within one, but came up empty.
That then set the stage for Quinerly’s floater in the paint, which left the Mountaineers leading 81-76 with 34 seconds left.
“I live for those moments,” Quinerly said.
Following another defensive stop, Quinerly sealed the outcome by going 2 for 2 on free throws with 27 seconds to play.
“It’s been a tough week for us in a lot of ways, but we competed our tails off for 40 minutes,” Cyclones’ head coach Bill Fennelly said. “West Virginia plays a style that’s hard to play against. It was a nice crowd and environment and credit to them. That’s a team that’s going to be a tough out for a lot of people.”
Neither team led by double digits at any point throughout a tightly contested game. The Mountaineers ran off the final seven points of the first quarter, including a Lauren Fields triple to beat the buzzer, for a 16-14 lead. Kylee Blacksten helped key the solid start with seven first-quarter points, and she’d add five more in the second, though the Cyclones made 5-of-8 threes in that frame to enter halftime on top, 40-38.
“In the first half, we didn’t play very well defensively. We had to take something away, either the paint or three, and we didn’t take either away,” Kellogg said.
In the third quarter, ISU center Audi Crooks scored 12 points and needed only three field-goal attempts to do so, all of which she made. Crooks, who hit 6-of-7 free throws in the quarter as well, scored six of her team’s first eight points after halftime, before teammate Kelsey Joens connected from long range to leave the visitors with a 51-48 advantage.
The ISU advantage grew to five twice more that quarter, but starting with Quinerly’s layup at the 3:29 mark, the Mountaineers outscored the Cyclones 10-1 the remainder of the period.
That stretch featured reserve post player Danelle Arigbabu making 3-of-4 free throws after she was inserted into the game for the first time. Arigbabu went on finish with five points and four boards in 11 minutes.
“She did everything that she was supposed to do,” Blacksten said, “and gave our team that little bit of a boost that we really needed.”
Quinerly made 11-of-23 shots and half of her eight three-point attempts as WVU finished 13 of 27 from long range.
“Whatever it takes kind of mindset. She was ready for this one and I kind of felt it in practice the last couple days,” Kellogg said.
Blacksten (14), Fields (14) and Harrison (13) also registered double-figure scoring, while Harrison led all players with six assists.
The Mountaineers were out-rebounded 36-27, but forced 24 of the game’s 37 turnovers and recorded 17 of 20 steals in the contest.
“They’re fully committed to [pressing],” Fennelly said. “They’re attacking the ball all the time and they can do it at four spots. They try to take you out of your offense, but the biggest thing is their guards are so good at the initial point of the press, when you do beat it, they speed you up and you might miss a shot or make a bad decision. It’s a very hard defense to play against and prepare for. I’m glad we’re done with them.”
Crooks finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds in defeat, while Jalynn Bristol scored 12, though only two came after halftime.
After making 7-of-14 threes in the first half, ISU finished 9 of 28 from deep.
“We battled,” Kellogg said, “and defended the three better in the second half.”