MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg has largely viewed his team as a work in progress through the first 10 games.
Should the Mountaineers play more often at the level they displayed throughout the second half of Thursday’s matchup with Georgia Tech, that progress will come sooner rather than later.
After relying solely on defense to hold an eight-point halftime lead, the Mountaineers shot 60 percent and made 21 field goals over the final two quarters to cruise to an 82-50 victory at Hope Coliseum.
“In the second half, we settled down, moved the ball better and got more open looks,” Kellogg said. “We made more shots and threes and that will open it up a little bit. The adjustments by the kids were great.”
The Mountaineers (9-2) never trailed despite making 10-of-36 shots and only 1-of-15 three-pointers in the opening half. By limiting Georgia Tech (4-7) to two field goals and forcing 11 turnovers in the opening frame, WVU held a 13-6 lead.
Kellogg’s team maintained its strong defensive play in the second quarter, but shot just 5 for 17.
The Yellow Jackets had 17 turnovers in the first half, but WVU managed only 15 points off those miscues and settled for a 27-19 advantage at the break.
“That was one of the most disappointing things at halftime. They had 17 turnovers and we didn’t even have 17 points off of those turnovers,” Kellogg said.
Both teams picked up the pace offensively in a major way throughout the third quarter.
WVU guard Gia Cooke made a triple on her team’s first shot of the second half, and that served as a theme throughout the period for the home team, which got three treys from Shaw and a second from Cooke that quarter to make 5 of 11 from long distance over that 10-minute stretch. Inside the arc, meanwhile, the Mountaineers did plenty of damage, too, as they made 7-of-9 two-point field-goal attempts in the third quarter, including all three that Kierra “MeMe” Wheeler put up.
By making 12-of-20 shots and scoring 30 points in the third, the Mountaineers doubled their halftime lead to 57-41 through three despite the Yellow Jackets shooting 8 for 13 and getting 11 points from D’Asia Thomas-Harris that quarter.
“Didn’t love the defense in the third quarter. Outside of that, I liked us defensively for most of the night,” Kellogg said.
The Mountaineers hardly let up the rest of the way and got buckets from Riley Makalusky and Shaw to start the fourth to up their advantage to 20.
A triple from Cooke with 5:02 remaining left WVU with its largest lead to that point at 68-44.
The Mountaineers made 9-of-15 shots with three additional treys in the final quarter to put together a 55-point second half in their second win of the season in as many tries against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.
Cooke scored 17 of her game-high 23 points after halftime to lead four Mountaineers in double figures.
“The ball movement kept people on their heels and toes,” Cooke said. “We moved rotations around and that gave us areas to attack and play to.”
It marks the sixth time this season that Cooke led WVU in scoring.
Shaw followed with 18, all but five of which came in the second half. Jordan Harrison, who led WVU with nine points at halftime, added 16, as did Wheeler, who scored 12 over the third and fourth quarters. Wheeler added a game-high 11 rebounds for her third double-double this season.
“She hones in and she dominates everything down there. It’s going to be hard to guard her,” Cooke said.
Harrison contributed six rebounds, six assists and four steals as well.
“She just settles everybody else,” Kellogg said. “Everybody else feels more comfortable when they have Jordan on the floor.”
Thomas-Harris led the Yellow Jackets with 14 points. Savannah Samuel, who played two seasons at West Virginia starting in 2021, followed with 13 points in defeat.
Georgia Tech, which has a first-year head coach in Karen Blair, fell to 0-5 against power conference competition and 0-3 on the road this season.
It marked the second straight game WVU played without starting center Jordan Thomas, though Kellogg noted she was close to seeing action and should return to the lineup Sunday at Texas A&M.
“Was going to maybe try to put her in the third quarter,” Kellogg said. “We went with [Celia Riviere] instead and it didn’t make any sense after that, so we’ll give her a couple more days. She was available if we needed her.”