MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Early struggles to find the bottom of the basket did not deter the No. 15 Mountaineers as they slowly pulled away from Pittsburgh, 82-54 in the latest chapter and last scheduled meeting of the Backyard Brawl series.
WVU shot just 5-of-15 from the floor in the opening quarter, creeping out to a 12-9 lead after the opening ten minutes. However, the Mountaineers built a double-digit lead at halftime and they were never really threatened after intermission
“We started a little slow offensively. I don’t know that we found any great rhythm for most of the night. I thought there were too many fouls, probably on both teams. It took away some of the flow and the tempo to it,” said WVU head coach Mark Kellogg.
“It happens in these type of games,” said WVU senior guard JJ Quinerly. “They call it the Backyard Brawl for a reason. It was a little hard and we didn’t see a lot of shots go in like we usually do. So we had to grind it out.”
“Once we slowed our minds down, we started to get back to playing how we did,” said WVU junior guard Jordan Harrison. “We were taking some uncharacteristic shots. [Kellogg] just told us to slow our mind down and after that, we finally found our rhythm.”
In typical fashion, West Virginia forced 30 turnovers, collected 17 steals and scored 34 points off Pittsburgh turnovers.
“We certainly won the turnover margin by a pretty good percentage, which has been our identity since I have been here. We’re off to a good start this year turning people over,” Kellogg said. “If we are not making shots, at least that allows us to find some easy offense.”
Quinerly led WVU with 17 points. She connected on 7-of-23 shots from the floor while missing on all ten of her attempts from behind the arc. Kellogg remains confident that Quinerly will find her shot as the season progresses.
“We need her to stay aggressive,” Kellogg said. “She is the leader. She is a scorer. She is an All-American-type kid. A little high volume tonight but that is OK. I think we feed off that too.”
“In the past games, I have shot the ball I just haven’t been seeing it go in,” Quinerly said. “So I definitely came out trying to see the ball go in for sure for these next couple games coming up.”
Harrison scored 14 points and Sydney Shaw added 11, all coming in the second half. Eleven Mountaineers scored at least two points. A crowd of 3,614 watched the Mountaineers improve to 3-0 on the young season.
“There were moments of this game that were great,” Kellogg said. “It was a great crowd and a great environment again tonight for a November game and against Pitt. I thought we felt it. We turned them over. They called the first timeout of the second half and that’s something we talk about all the time. That means we are probably imposing our will a little bit.”
West Virginia will host Texas A&M Friday night as their six-game season-opening homestand continues.
Pittsburgh (2-1) was led by Khadijah Faye’s 14-point, 12-rebound effort. Fairmont Senior High School graduate Marley Washenitz started and played 15 minutes for the Panthers.