Mar. 22—CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The band got back together again Saturday.
It wasn’t exactly a reunion tour for J.J. Quinerly and Jordan Harrison.
Rather, it was almost as if the hands of time had been pushed back and the two WVU guards were starting fresh once again.
“The way we were running around, it did sort of feel like it was the beginning of the season again, ” Harrison said after the sixth-seeded Mountaineers dismantled 11th-seed Columbia 78-59 in the first round of the NCAA tournament inside Carmichael Arena. “It felt really good out there.”
BOX SCORE It showed, as the Mountaineers (25-7) led in this one for all but the opening six seconds, as Harrison scored eight of WVU’s first 12 points and then her and Quinerly kicked it up another notch from there.
The final tally: Quinerly scored 27 points to become just the fourth WVU women’s player to reach 2, 000 career points. She passed former standout Bria Holmes for third place on the school’s all-time scoring list.
Harrison added 23 more to go along with six assists.
“When Jordan plays like that, she makes it easier for us both, ” said Quinerly, who also had seven steals and seven assists. “It allows us to play off each other and start to have some fun.
“When one of us gets a steal, the other one wants to be the next one to get a steal. It’s like a domino effect and we’re just having fun.”
Quinerly will enter Monday’s game against third-seeded North Carolina with 2, 008 points. Her historic bucket to reach 2, 000 came on a quick cross-over move that took Quinerly into the paint for a short pull-up jumper.
That gave the Mountaineers a 59-42 lead late in the third quarter.
“I think it’s just an amazing accomplishment, ” she said. “I don’t think I dreamed of scoring 2, 000 points probably my whole life, so just seeing it happen and then being where I’m at with these group of girls and the coach I have right now, I love it.”
The Tar Heels (28-7) ran past Oregon State for a 70-49 victory. It will be the second all-time meeting between WVU and North Carolina. The first came in 1979.
At stake will be a trip to the Sweet 16 in Birmingham, Ala. for either team.
As for the win against the Lions (24-7), WVU hit eight of its first nine shots and shot 71.4 % in the first quarter to take an early 24-15 lead.
“Yeah, probably about a minute in, it looked and felt right, ” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said.
The Mountaineers had a week to rest and prepare for the NCAAs, following their loss against TCU in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.
“I just thought our kids had regrouped and came out with just fantastic energy, ” Kellogg continued. “We kind of used the phrase punch first a little bit, and I thought we got them a little bit there early.”
WVU freshman Jordan Thomas added 12 points and nine rebounds in her first NCAA tournament game.
“She’s definitely figured out that she can be a dominant post player, ” Quinerly said. “She’s still just a freshman, so she’s got to get some moves, and she’ll still make mistakes, but she’s going to be a monster here in a couple of years.”
WVU’s pressure defense forced 25 turnovers, and the Mountaineers scored 28 points off them. Columbia had 11 of its 25 turnovers in the first quarter.
“It’s so hard to simulate, ” West Virginia’s pressure, said Columbia head coach Megan Griffith. “You can talk a lot about it. You can watch a lot of film. You can walk through it. We just didn’t settle in quick enough.”
Notes — WVU improved to 13-15 all-time in the NCAA tournament.
— Quinerly also became WVU’s all-time leader in points and steals in NCAA tournament games. In four appearances, she’s got 90 points and 16 steals.
— Harrison is eight assists shy of setting the school record for career assists in the NCAA tournament. Rosemary Kosiorek had 25 in four NCAA games from 1989-92.
— The victory marks the first time in school history the Mountaineers won at least 25 games in consecutive seasons.
