MORGANTOWN — This time of year, it’s easy for a basketball team to lose focus.
The weather is, hopefully, getting warmer. The postseason is on the horizon and the closing of a long season is on the horizon.
WVU women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg had to wonder if his team was suffering from a bit of an identity crisis with 1:07 left in the first half.
The No. 18 ranked Mountaineers were suddenly trailing visiting Cincinnati 21-20, after the Bearcats used a 14-4 run to take the lead.
“That was so disappointing,” Kellogg said of giving up an early lead that WVU built in the first quarter thanks to a 10-0 run of its own.
However, Kellogg saw his team fight back and find its identity as WVU went on a 7-0 run to close the half.
That run extended into the second half as the Mountaineers pushed their lead to 45-25 late in the third quarter and never looked back on their way to a 69-50 victory.
The win came on senior day when WVU was celebrating its six seniors, and it also extended its home winning streak to 15 games.
“It was senior night; there’s maybe some red eyes before the game. It’s always (a decision) as a coach do you do it then or do we wait and do it after the game,” Kellogg said. “I thought once we got back in the locker room before the game they were settled down and ready to go play.”
J.J. Quinerly, the lone senior who has played at WVU all four years through three coaching changes, was emotional before the game.
“I saw my dad wipe his eyes and I was like – oh Lord,” Quinerly said. “I think that kind of fired us up a little bit. I mean, you know that it’s a big game and you want to go out there and play like it’s your last game.”
Still, WVU (20-5, 10-4 Big 12) struggled in the first half as it shot just 39.4 percent from the field and managed to hit just one 3-pointer in the first half.
That cold outside shooting played right into the hands of a Cincinnati (14-10, 6-8) team that played a zone defense much of the game.
“I thought we really had an opportunity in the first half to go into the halftime with a lead,” Cincinnati head coach Katrina Merriweather said. “But obviously, when you’re playing a team as good as West Virginia, they will always have other plans.”
Merriweather said the 7-0 run before halftime by WVU was big as it gave the Mountaineer momentum heading into the second half.
WVU did find its offense in the second half as it finished shooting nearly 44 percent from the field and managed to hit five three pointers as well. But it was the WVU defense that really settled things down.
“Their defense is really hard to duplicate in practice,” Merriweather said.
Kellogg said he needs to see better starts out of his team as they turn around for a tough Big 12 Conference contest. WVU hosts conference-leading Kansas State on Monday for a 2 p.m. matinee contest on President’s Day.
“We will get prepared a little differently than we might typically with this quick turn around,” Kellogg said. “We will bring them back into our normal prep work tomorrow.”
Quinerly led WVU with 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Kyah Watson led WVU with nine rebounds, six steals and a team-high four assists.
“She’s pretty unique,” Kellogg said of Watson. “She’s a kid we believe in offensive too, but she’s okay deferring and letting others kind of go and just doing her role. She’s so elite on the (defensive) end. She’s bouncy, athletic and I’m telling you, if we make a mistake, Kyah Watson can cover up a lot of things.”
— Story by Eric Herter
