MORGANTOWN — Four years, three different coaches, 121 games and 1,906 points and counting.
The great ones are often defined and immortalized by the numbers they put up. Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs. Michael Jordan’s six NBA titles. Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins.
Very few women’s basketball players at WVU have put up the kind of stats J.J. Quinerly has achieved.
Yet her story goes beyond numbers. The star guard, during her time with the Mountaineers, developed into so much more than just a name in the box score.
“I definitely felt like I became a face within the community,” she said Wednesday after tying a school record with 38 points in leading No. 18 WVU past Utah 75-46 inside the Coliseum. “I’ll go to Kroger to get my groceries and people may notice me.
“I love it. I know this town will have my back no matter what. If I ever come back and need some help with something or need a job, I know somebody will have my back. That loyalty is why I stayed.”
If this night was indeed Quinerly’s final time playing in the Coliseum, the senior certainly saved her best for last.
The 38 points tied Christie Lambert and Meg Bulger for the most ever in one game by a WVU player.
She shot 16 of 21 from the floor, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range.
Maybe the most astonishing part of the night was Quinerly got in early foul trouble and had just two points heading into the second quarter. By the end of the third quarter, she was up to 29.
“That was easy from a coaching standpoint,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “Just get the ball to No. 11 and get the hell out of the way and let her do her thing.”
Whether or not this was Quinerly’s final game in Morgantown is still to be determined. There is still an outside chance the Mountaineers (22-6, 12-5 Big 12) could earn the right to host a regional in the NCAA tournament, setting up the possibility of two more games in Morgantown next month.
The win against Utah (21-7, 12-5) was WVU’s third Quad 1 win of the season — it was also WVU’s 17th consecutive win inside the Coliseum — and the Mountaineers entered the game ranked 13th in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
“There is probably an outside chance,” Kellogg said. “We need to win a lot of games in the conference tournament. I don’t know if that means win the whole thing, I have no idea. We just need to continue to stack wins. We still need to boost our resumé for sure.”
As for the game itself, Quinerly’s performance was a highlight show filled with her traditional drives to the rim, sneaking up behind an opposing guard for a steal, 3-point shots and mid-range jumpers.
“It was the single best performance I’ve ever been a part of as a coach,” Kellogg said.
It was a peak performance that included so many other impressive moments during her career.
When they are all added up, the one number that may best define Quinerly’s accomplishments at WVU is 4,147. That was the average attendance at WVU’s 16 home games in her senior year.
It not only set a program record, it blasted the previous record set last season by an average of 1,286 per game.
Quinerly just didn’t become a face in the community. She became a reason to get excited about women’s basketball in Morgantown.
“My freshman year, there wasn’t as big of a fan base at the games,” Quinerly said. “Fans started coming my sophomore year. When Kellogg came and then after that Iowa game (in the 2024 NCAA tournament), it was like a boatload of fans started coming. We definitely feed off it and play our hearts out when they start yelling.”
There was plenty for the fans to cheer about Wednesday. WVU’s defense held Utah to just five points in the first quarter, and once Quinerly started heating up in the second quarter, the Mountaineers’ lead steadily grew.
In the third quarter, Quinerly simply started scoring buckets as if she was in the Coliseum by herself.
She eclipsed the 30-point mark just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. She hit 34 points with a 3-pointer with 8:19 remaining, which broke her previous career high.
“I was just letting it fly,” Quinerly said. “I didn’t really know how many I had.”
She hit a cross-over dribble that led her to a foul-line jumper for 36 points, but then began to cramp up and came out of the game.
With 3:36 remaining, Quinerly came back in and tied the school record with a fastbreak lay-up. If she hadn’t started cramping up again at that point, Quinerly may have had an opportunity to go for 40.
“Yeah, I took myself out,” Quinerly admitted.
The Mountaineers are now set up to close out the regular season at Cincinnati on Saturday, before getting ready for the Big 12 tournament.
Who knows what Quinerly will have prepared for that one.
“I’m really proud of this kid over here,” Kellogg said, as he glanced over at Quinerly. “For her last game, to go down like it did, that’s special stuff. She’s a special kid and a special player.”
