MORGANTOWN, W.Va — Madisen Smith scored her 1,000th career point, while West Virginia used a strong end to the third quarter in their 72-42 victory over Robert Morris.
Smith has been with the Mountaineers since 2018. With 5:37 to play in the third quarter on Thursday, Smith hit a jumper to put West Virginia up 11 over the Colonials.
“It’s pretty exciting to be a part of that group of the 38 players that made it to 1,000 [points],” Smith said. “Excited that it happened, glad to put it behind me.”
That basket would spark an 18-2 run to close out the third quarter, leading 54-29 heading into the fourth quarter, with 10 of the points coming at the free throw line.
“I think it starts with us getting stops,” West Virginia head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “I thought we got out in transition, and we moved the ball pretty well and we got some good shots.”
The Mountaineers were in control of Robert Morris early, racing out to a 16-3 lead within the first seven minutes of the game. In the first quarter, Jayla Hemingway would score five points and get five rebounds. On the evening, Hemingway finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
“I thought in practice this week was the best week she’s had,” Plitzuweit said. “I think she’s someone who we rely on a great deal, and I thought she started to be comfortable.”
Hemingway would not be the only Mountaineer to reach double-digits in the scoring column as Kyah Watson scored 16 points and JJ Quinerly scored 11 points.
Trailing by 18 at the beginning of the second quarter, Robert Morris would creep back into the game. The Colonials would go into halftime down 11, as they forced seven of West Virginia’s 14 turnovers in the second quarter, scoring seven points off those turnovers.
“I thought we had stretches in the game where we did a good job taking care of [the ball], and then it would be compounded into stretches where we would turn it over consistently,” Plitzuweit said. “It was kind of like back-to-back-to-back turnovers.”
Out of halftime, West Virignia turned to Quinerly and Watson. Both scored nine points in the second half, while Quinerly scored all nine of her points on West Virginia’s 18-2 run.
Watson would score just two points in the third quarter but would make a three-pointer to open the fourth, and later would make back-to-back layups.
West Virginia will be back in action on Sunday when they travel to face Penn State, before heading to the West Palm Beach Invitational on Dec. 20-21.
