CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The No. 6-seeded West Virginia women's basketball team saw a few program records fall in its 78-59 win over No. 11 Columbia inside Carmichael Arena on Saturday afternoon during the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Senior guard
JJ Quinerly finished with 27 points, to surpass 2,000 career points. She currently sits with 2,008 points across 125 games to sit alone in third place on the program's all-time scoring list. Additionally, her seven steals in the game are a program tournament record while she added seven assists and four rebounds.
As a team, the Mountaineers also secured a program tournament record with 17 steals. It is the most in a game since recording 14 against Xavier during the 2007 tournament.
Junior guard
Jordan Harrison finished the game with a WVU career-high 23 points on a 9 of 12 mark from the field. She added six assists and three steals. Freshman forward
Jordan Thomas finished just shy of a double-double in her first career NCAA Tournament game. Thomas finished with 12 points and added nine rebounds.
The dynamic duo of Quinerly and Harrison opened the contest with a combined 9 of 9 from the floor. The pair finished the opening half with a combined 32 points to push WVU to a 46-29 lead at the break. WVU outscored Columbia by one point in each of the final quarters, including a 17-16 mark in the third and a 15-14 mark in the fourth.
WVU forced the Lions into 25 turnovers, resulting in 28 Mountaineers points. The turnovers forced marks the 14
th time this season WVU has reached the number. West Virginia also controlled the paint, scoring a season-high 48 points from the high percentage area.
Head coach
Mark Kellogg has now won 50 games as head coach of the Mountaineers. It is the most wins in a coach's first two seasons at WVU in Program history. The Mountaineers advance to the second round for the second straight season.
Next up, West Virginia will face No. 3 seed North Carolina on Monday. Tipoff time inside Carmichael Arena as well as the games TV designation has not yet been released.
