MORGANTOWN – The 15th-ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team remained unbeaten early in the 2024 season with an 83-62 victory over visiting Texas A&M on Friday night inside the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers (4-0) led 33-29 at the half before outscoring the Aggies (2-2) 27-7 in the third quarter, including a 16-0 run across the opening five minutes of the second half.
Senior guard JJ Quinerly led all scorers with 27 points, shooting 9 of 16 from the field. Fifth-year senior Kylee Blacksten added 17 points, nailing five triples in the contest.
Junior Sydney Shaw contributed 12 points and six rebounds. WVU forced 20 turnovers, leading to 23 points.
“I didn’t have any major speech at halftime or anything for them,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “It was more of getting them back to the Xs and Os and letting the offense work itself out more. Then, defensively, I thought we contained the ball better in the third quarter than we did starting the game. We tweaked a few things, and to our kids’ credit, they did the right things and made some great reads.”
WVU held a 26-17 advantage midway through the second quarter and threatened to extend the lead before the Aggies responded and cut the lead to four at the break.
But the Mountaineers offense exploded out of the locker room, outscoring the visitors 16-0 before the Aggies found a bucket.
Blacksten picked up where she had left off in the first half, sparking the run with her third three of the game, followed by Shaw, who nailed a triple of her own.
Quinerly and Jordan Harrison contributed with tough layups at the rim, and Kyah Watson capped the run with two more, extending the lead to 18 points, 47-29.
WVU shot 10 for 15 from the floor in the third.
“My teammates give me a lot of confidence, and I know they would say the same thing for me,” Blacksten said. “That’s really where it all goes back to in every game. We all believe in each other and what we can do.”
Texas A&M ended the run with a layup by Sole Williams with 4:35 left in the third frame, but Blacksten hit back with a layup and two more triples, her fourth and fifth of the game, to slam the door on any chance of the A&M comeback.
“I think the biggest difference in the third was us just trusting each other,” Quinerly said. “We didn’t try and do too much individually to take the air out of the ball or slow ourselves down.”
The Mountaineers dished 15 assists on 29 made field goals in the game, with Harrison contributing eight. Kyah Watson grabbed eight rebounds and a game-high seven steals.
“Kyah does everything out there for us,” Kellogg said. “At times, I have no choice but to leave her in the game when I feel like she may need a break because she is efficient on the floor. I’m proud of the effort tonight. We had a saying all week about throwing our punches and picking our spot to go for the knockout, and I think we swung at the right time tonight.”
