MORGANTOWN — West Virginia flexed its defensive muscle Friday and created some interesting number games along the way.
For example, the 13th-ranked Mountaineers finished with more than twice as many assists as Lafayette had baskets.
Or the Leopards committed more turnovers than they scored points.
The list seemed nearly endless, as WVU’s defense and a balanced scoring attack led to an easy 98-28 victory inside the Coliseum.
“I don’t know if our defense is an extra player. It may seem like that to our opponents from time to time,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “It can get a little overwhelming if you’re not careful.”
The Leopards (1-4) were overwhelmed from the start. WVU nailed five 3-pointers in the first quarter and led 45-15 at the half.
At that point, it was time to start looking at the school record books and the numbers game was on.
WVU’s 25 assists were the second most under Kellogg and more than doubled up Lafayette’s 12 baskets.
The Leopard’s 28 points were tied for the seventh-fewest allowed in the program’s 51-season history, and Lafayette finished with 30 turnovers.
It was the least amount of points allowed at WVU under Kellogg, and the first time an opponent was held under 30 since Nov. 20, 2011.
“Those types of games are always fun, especially when you can get everyone involved,” said WVU forward Kylee Blacksten, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds.
The only one not involved was WVU starting guard Sydney Shaw, who served a one-game suspension for punching a Bowling Green player earlier in the week.
“It was a coach Kellogg decision,” Kellogg said. “It was one game and we’ll move on from there.”
The Mountaineers (6-0) didn’t skip a beat without here, shooting a season-high 56.9% (33 of 58) from the floor, while connecting on 14 3-pointers, the most in one game since WVU hit 17 against Oklahoma State in 2017.
“For the most part we shot it well,” Kellogg said. “Obviously, we made a ton of threes. I love our assist number to be up like that. I thought we played hard and stayed fairly connected to the game.”
J.J. Quinerly finished with 19 points and hit four 3-pointers for the Mountaineers before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
Freshman forward Jordan Thomas got the start in Shaw’s place and scored 11 points with five assists and four rebounds.
Sydney Woodley came off the bench to have her best game of the season. The transfer from Long Beach State finished with 15 points and five steals.
“We’re definitely always sitting there waiting for Sydney,” Blacksten said. “She’s phenomenal and we’ve been waiting for her to take it, and she did. She was phenomenal on both sides of the floor.”
The Mountaineers also finished with 21 steals, making it just the sixth time in the program’s history they had at least 20 steals and 25 assists in the same game.
WVU will hit the road for the first time this season, when it travels to Estero, Fla. next week to play in the Gulf Coast Showcase. The tournament could eventually lead the Mountaineers to a showdown against fourth-ranked Texas.
“Now we’ll take our show on the road and see what we’re made of,” Kellogg said.
