MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Five Mountaineers scored in double figures and the team forced 37 turnovers in a 95-43 win over Fairmont State Sunday in the second half of a preseason hoops doubleheader at Hope Coliseum.
Sydney Woodley scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting to pace the Mountaineers. She also added a team-best 5 steals. Woodley, a senior guard in her second season at WVU, came off the bench last season. She was in the starting five against FSU.
“I think she was aggressive at the right times offensively, said WVU head coach Mark Kellogg. “That’s been our challenge with her, to continue to stay offensive.”
West Virginia jumped out to a 28-8 lead on the defending Mountain East Conference champions after the first quarter of play. The Falcons played almost even with the Mountaineers (20-18) in the second quarter and West Virginia led 48-26 at halftime. In the second half, the Mountaineers did not allow a field goal to the Falcons, although FSU connected on 17-of-25 attempts from the free throw line.
Each team was called for 29 fouls and the squads combined to shoot 77 free throws.
“At times it looks pretty good. At times there’s things for us to work on. We’ll get back to the drawing board on Tuesday when we get back together. I thought we had moments of being pretty good and moments where obviously the fouling was kind of crazy and the amount of free throws. We’ll work on that.”
This was the first public exhibition hosted by the Mountaineers in Kellogg’s third season leading the team.
“I feel like we have all been waiting for the moment where we can play in front of fans,” said WVU junior forward Riley Makalusky. “That was so fun, having people finally get to see what we have been practicing for so long. For my first time playing in front of people in the Coliseum, it was just awesome. I loved it.”
“It was exciting. It was definitely preparing us for the season,” said WVU junior forward Carter McCray. “It is good to see people come out and support us, get to meet the fans and see them in person.”
In addition to Woodley’s 15 points, McCray and Sydney Shaw each added 14 points. Jordan Thomas scored 11 and Makalusky chipped in with 10.
“This is going to take a minute. We are not going to have this all figured out over the next couple weeks by any stretch. This will go for quite some time, trying to identify roles, minutes and how it is going to get spread out in rotations,” Kellogg said.
“We only have eleven players, and I keep saying this but I feel like it is a very versatile roster. We can move people. There’s different ways we can play. We can go a little bit bigger if we want.
“As a coach, you want options. If we could have stayed out of foul trouble, I would have had more options tonight. That would have helped a little bit. As long as we stay healthy, it is a versatile group.”
West Virginia, coming off back-to-back 25-win seasons, will open the regular season on November 3 against Purdue Fort Wayne.
Fairmont State was led in scoring by Bridgeport High School graduate Gabbie Reep. She scored 15 points.