After a huge 80-39 victory over Houston on Wednesday, West Virginia women’s basketball head coach Mark Kellogg discussed what went well for the Mountaineers.
“Obviously, got off to the great start in that first quarter, probably just set the tone for the entire game,” Kellogg said of WVU’s 17-0 first quarter run where they scored two more points in the second before the Cougar’s first bucket.
“And we wanted a quick start, knew if we could prevent them from scoring, they couldn’t pressure us as much as they wanted to.”
West Virginia shot 7-16 in the first and 7-14 in the second, scoring 35 points, averaging a 47% field goal percentage in the first half, however Kellogg wasn’t completely satisfied.
“I didn’t love our offensive flow early, but we did enough and got paint touches. Didn’t have to settle for too many threes I didn’t tonight and really just settled in from that point,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg also believes that this was a fluke game for Houston, who came into the game with an 11-5 record.
“They’re a better team than what they played tonight, we had seen them on film and they’re much better than that. So, probably just a frustrating night for them, but hopefully we had something to do with that as well and proud of our kids (players),” Kellogg said of Houston.
The Mountaineers out-rebounded the Cougars 40-29 which may have been a key factor in creating such a point differential.
“We rebounded the ball fairly well tonight, was one of the first times I thought here lately that we’ve done a pretty good job on the boards,” Kellogg said.
West Virginia turned the ball over 21 times on Wednesday, just one less time than Houston did, creating slight concern, but not total panic due to the Cougars’ offensive struggles.
“That was terrible, that’s way too many turnovers,” Kellogg said.
“Some of those came late when the score was out of hand. So now, you’re trying to do things that you wouldn’t do in a closer game.”
WVU had just eight turnovers going into halftime, compared to Houston’s 14.
The Mountaineers had four players end in double figures in terms of points.
Lauren Fields was one of them ending with a double-double, 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“She was really, really good and we challenged her to rebound a little bit more for us and she’s capable,” Kellogg said of Fields.
“We just need her to be versatile for us and to get the double-double that was her career high if I’m not mistaken, in rebounds. So really good for her,” Kellogg said.
West Virginia will be on the road against Cincinnati on Saturday, looking to build off the momentum of Wednesday’s win and continue to improve their record in conference play (15-2 overall, 5-2 in the Big 12).
