By: Shanna Rose
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.– JJ Quinerly had 27 points and 7 assists as sixth-seeded West Virginia knocked off No. 11-seeded Columbia 78-59 on Saturday afternoon at Carmichael Arena in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
With her performance, Quinerly surpassed 2,000 career points and currently sits with 2,008 points across 125 games to sit alone in third place on the program’s all-time scoring list. Additionally, her seven steals in the game are a program tournament record.
Jordan Harrison finished with a career-high 23 points and Jordan Thomas had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Mountaineers (25-7, 13-5 Big 12).
WVU forced 25 turnovers and had 17 steals, a program tournament record. During the 2007 tournament the Mountaineers had 14 against Xavier.
Quinerly and Harris began the game on fire, going 9-of-9 from the floor and WVU led 18-10 by the 5:00 mark. The Lions (24-7, 13-1 Ivy League) managed to keep it close in the first quarter by hitting enough 3s and trailed 24-15 at the end of the quarter.
By the end of the first half Quinerly and Harrison combined for a total of 32 points as the Mountaineers led 46-29 at the half.
After trailing by as many as 22 in the second half, Columbia managed to cut the margin to 15 in the third. However, WVU never let them get any closer.
“I was hoping for the start that we got,” Mountaineers head coach Mark Kellogg said. “That was really important for us. I thought our pressure dictated a few things early. We turned it over too much, but we did turn them over quite a bit. I thought these two (Quinerly and Harrison) were really, really good and kind of led the charge for sure, but I thought we had a lot of kids step up.”
Cecelia Collins led the Lions with 16 points and Kitty Henderson added 13.
WVU will face No. 3 seed North Carolina on Monday. Tipoff time inside Carmichael Arena as well as the games TV designation has not yet been released.
Photo credit: WVU Athletics
