MORGANTOWN — West Virginia did a defensive number on Big 12 leading scorer Audi Crooks on Sunday, showing just how far the Mountaineers have come in one year of recruiting under Mark Kellogg.
The box score says the 20th-ranked Mountaineers ran past the Cyclones for an 82-68 win inside the Coliseum behind the play of J.J. Quinelry and Jordan Harrison, both finishing with 20 points.
Yet the difference was how much better the Mountaineers (15-3, 5-2 Big 12) could match up against Iowa State’s powerful 6-foot-3 center, who came into the game leading the Big 12 in scoring at 22.6 points per game.
“They beat the living crap out of her,” was the way Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly put it. “That’s kind of the way everyone plays her now. She’s a big strong and physical kid, which I think allows other teams to be really physical. That’s what people do.”
In Kellogg’s first season last year, WVU simply didn’t have the personnel to beat the living crap out of anyone.
A year later, along comes freshman Jordan Thomas and junior-college recruit C.C. Riviere, both who have the size and strength to match up with someone like Crooks.
“It’s not just Crooks, because when you come into the Big 12, you’re going to see these dominant low-post players,” Kellogg said. “We didn’t quite have as much size last year as we do now. I really thought Jordan did a good job in the minutes she played. C.C. did a good job. That’s the beauty of this team is we have more depth.”
The difference? A year ago — when Crooks was just a freshman —the Iowa State star averaged 23.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in two games against the Mountaineers.
On Sunday, Crooks was held to just 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting with two rebounds.
“Thirteen points, that wasn’t the number in my mind,” Kellogg admitted. “We exceeded expectations there. As a coaching staff, we talked about that a little bit, and I didn’t know we could hold her to 13. It was 13 without giving up a ton of threes, too. I think that’s what pleases me the most.”
Crooks didn’t break into double digits in the scoring column until there was 6:52 remaining in the game. By then, WVU had already built a lead that was once 26 points and was never lower than 13 points in the second half.
“It’s nice having a few more post players, obviously we’re bigger,” said WVU forward Kyah Watson, who finished with a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. “We could give her different looks. We didn’t allow her to just be on the blocks, where she’s most efficient.”
WVU’s offense was efficient early, taking a 30-15 lead heading into the second quarter.
Harrison got off to a hot start with 10 points in the first quarter.
“My shot was feeling pretty good,” Harrison said. “I had a good feeling coming in.”
Quinerly, who passed former standout Meg Bulger for eighth place on the school’s all-time scoring list — she’s got 1,677 points now — got going with 11 points in the third quarter.
“I thought our kids were dialed in,” Kellogg said. “I loved the first quarter. I thought that settled us in pretty quickly. Any time you can get a 30-point quarter, it’s pretty impressive.”
Iowa State (13-7, 4-3) still shot 50% (24 of 48) from the field, but WVU’s defense forced 25 turnovers and the Mountaineers ended up with 23 more shots at the basket.
Addy Brown led Iowa State with 19 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. The Cyclones played without senior point guard Emily Ryan, who was out with an illness.
“West Virginia is a very good team,” Fennelly said. “They play the game hard and they are well-coached. We knew what we were getting into with the limitations we had roster-wise today. I thought we did the best we could. We competed, but we were overwhelmed by their pressure and skill set.”
