MORGANTOWN — It’s one thing to hear a coach talk about impacting a basketball game in other ways than scoring.
Jordan Harrison lives it.
“Honestly, it’s just what the team needs,” West Virginia’s sophomore guard said after the No. 24 Mountaineers held off No. 23 Oklahoma 70-66 inside the Coliseum on Saturday. “If it’s scoring, I’ll score. If I need to pass, I’ll pass. If I need to rebound, I’ll rebound. I just want to do whatever my team needs to win. That’s what has helped me become a team player. I don’t worry about stats.”
The Mountaineers (22-3, 11-3 Big 12) made a major statement with the win over the Big 12’s first-place team.
That statement: WVU isn’t going anywhere, as the Mountaineers moved just one game behind the Sooners (18-7, 12-2) for the league’s top spot with just four games left in the regular season.
And this victory had Harrison’s fingerprints all over it.
She finished just 2 of 10 shooting, not exactly anything to write home about.
But you also have to factor in her nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. All of them were timely and all of them deadly for Oklahoma, which saw its nine-game winning streak come to a close, as well as its five-game win streak against WVU.
“That’s Jordan Harrison to a T,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “She finds ways to impact the game when she’s not scoring. If she’s not the best point guard in the Big 12, she’s one of them. She’s at the top. I think that highly of her.”
The game itself played out like two Big 12 heavyweights throwing roundhouse rights and lefts at each other.
Oklahoma started out with an 8-0 lead before WVU settled in. Once the Mountaineers calmed down, it was tied at 18 heading into the second quarter.
The Sooners connected on 13 3-pointers. WVU forced 25 turnovers.
Oklahoma dominated on the boards 41-31, but WVU countered with 27 points from its bench, with backup forwards Tavy Diggs and Danelle Arigbabu combining for 18 points down low.
“As much as you want to win everywhere and every game you play, it was a good game for Big 12 women’s basketball today,” Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk said.
And then there was Harrison. When the game called for a clutch player, Harrison answered the call.
WVU’s lead was just 56-54 with 4:48 remaining when Harrison came up with a critical offensive rebound. Driving the ball along the baseline, she threw a no-look pass to Diggs for a lay-up.
“I had spotted Tavy already under the goal,” Harrison said. “I just kind of had to look it off a little bit to make sure it got there.”
“I learned this year, with Jordan, you always have to stay ready,” added Diggs, who finished with 12 points and four rebounds. “She’s going to find you, even if you don’t think so. You always have to have your hands ready.”
And while Harrison was just 2 of 10 shooting, her second basket was a bases-loaded double, coming just 20 seconds after the assist to Diggs on a drive to the basket that gave the Mountaineers a 60-54 lead.
Her fourth steal came from intercepting a pass with 1:20 remaining, which led to J.J. Quinerly scoring on a foul-line jumper for a 65-61 lead.
Quinerly finished with 18 points and five rebounds for WVU.
Harrison, who finished with 10 points, capped it all off by making two free throws in the final seconds to secure WVU’s second win against a top 25 this season.
Up next is a road game against No. 7 Kansas State, in what is another major challenge and opportunity to make a claim at what could be the program’s second-ever Big 12 title.
“Obviously this gives us a lot of confidence going into some other big games,” Harrison said. “We can celebrate tonight, but we’ve got Kansas State coming up. We’ve got Baylor coming up again. We can celebrate, but we’ve got to get ready to move on.”
