West Virginia’s trip to Puerto Rico brought back more than three wins, said fifth year guard Lauren Fields and head coach Mark Kellogg on Wednesday.
The Mountaineers, who stand 6-0 ahead of Saturday’s game against St. Bonaventure, experienced highs and lows within the three-day tournament. Primarily, the 54-51 win over George Washington featured both, as the team obviously struggled with their 19/62 shooting from the field despite the victory.
Fields said she was impressed with how she and the team managed to win despite such unfavorable statistics and the situation they were in. She stated that the game, though providing a disappointing performance, was a great benefit, as it allows learning without the price of a loss.
“It’s better to learn from a win than from a loss,” Fields said.
Coach Kellogg seemed to support that sentiment, as he expressed how the team learned a lot about themselves and how the game provided a lot of insight on what needed to be improved.
“Offensively, we weren’t very good, but it did allow us to play a close game, which we hadn’t really had other than Pitt a little bit, so some late game execution and things that still weren’t exactly where they need to be, but we did enough to find a way to win,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg expressed the team’s need to convert after forcing turnovers, as the Mountaineers struggled to finish at the rim despite many defensive stops. He mentioned potential struggles causing these errors, such as smaller guards scoring over the rim and finding the backboard on offensive rebounds, but Kellogg primarily stressed adjusting the pace.
“Because we play fast, there’s times you’re trying to finish fast, and really at the rim you can slow down at times, but there’s times like JJ slows down too much, and we want her to go ahead and just finish, so it’s a balancing act for each kid, but we’re going to focus on it and see if we can do a better job,” he said.
Despite the errors and new things to work on offensively, Kellogg viewed the George Washington game as a learning experience for successfully overcoming adversity.
“We played through foul trouble, and then Kaia got hurt, so we had to play through that. So just our ability to overcome a little bit of adversity, whether it was through foul trouble, injury, those type of things, I thought we did a good job.”
Additionally, the tournament highlighted what it would be like in the NCAA Tournament as far as playing frequent games at different times. For Fields, who played 29 minutes or more in all three games, it was positive exposure to the mental aspect of playing that much.
“Until we get to the tournament, I’m not going to be playing three games in a row for 30 minutes, but I think I handled it well,” Fields said. “Obviously the last day I could feel some of the fatigue, but I pushed through it, and we got those three wins.”
Kellogg mentioned in his own press conference that Fields was a bit overplayed during the tournament but that those are adjustments he and the players will be better suited to make when the postseason begins.
Morning tip-offs were also new for the team, and Kellogg said that experience will benefit them going forward. The team will look to show off that experience with a noon tip-off against St. Bonaventure on Saturday at home.
Photo from Wesley Shoemaker, Blue Gold Sports
