WVU women’s basketball has played well as of late, winning three in a row in conference play after dropping two straight in frustrating performances.
The 2023-2024 Mountaineers are 16-2 entering Saturday’s home game against Iowa State, putting them first among all past seasons in win percentage. They are allowing WVU’s fourth least points per game and scoring the second most of all time.
2024 has brought stand-out achievements, too, particularly last week’s back-to-back shutout first quarters against Houston and Cincinnati. Stars JJ Quinerly, Jordan Harrison, and Lauren Fields also hold the Big 12’s top three spots in steals per game.
Historic statistics, however, are nothing without historical context. Here are some of the best shows West Virginia Women’s Basketball has put on in their 50-year tenure.
1991-1992
Record: 26-4 (.867 win percentage)
Shortly after winning the A-10 Conference Championship in 1989, Kittie Blakemore coached WVU to its best season yet in year 10. The four-loss season featured West Virginia’s second NCAA Tournament appearance, which in turn featured its furthest advancement to date.
In the regular season, the Mountaineers lost two games, the first coming to No. 2 Virginia and the second being to No. 13 Western Kentucky. After the loss in the fifth game of the season, WVU began a 22-game winning streak against Pitt, which lasted until the postseason.
WVU automatically advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s second round despite an A-10 Championship loss to Duquesne. The No. 14 Mountaineers faced No. 20 Clemson and won a 73-72 battle. The last basket went to 5’10” junior Jodie Runner, who made a 14-foot shot with 11 seconds remaining for 12 total points in 18 minutes.
The star of the show, though, was always Rosemary Kosiorek, the 5’5″ senior guard from Baltimore. The Hall of Famer averaged 24.3 points per game in her final season and earned Atlantic 10 Player of the Year honors. Against Clemson, Kosiorek scored 22 points and dropped seven assists with only two turnovers. She grabbed three steals in the game, which was the second most behind fellow Hall of Famer Donna Abbott.
Abbott, also a four-year senior, stood at 6’0″ and averaged 14.2 points per game in 1992. She grabbed 10.1 rebounds and 3.2 steals per contest as well, making her one of West Virginia’s all-time greatest forwards. Abbott managed 14 points, nine rebounds, and five steals in the win over Clemson.
No. 1 Virginia defeated WVU in the Sweet Sixteen, 103-83, before making a Final Four appearance, but the Mountaineers’ greatest regular season effort and longest postseason run remain a mark of pride on the legacies of Kosiorek, Abbott, and the legendary Kittie Blakemore, who helped found the Mountaineers’ women’s basketball program. Kosiorek tallied 27 points and six assists while Donna Abbott managed 21 points, 11 rebounds, and four steals in the loss to Virginia.
2013-2014
Record: 30-5 (.857 winning percentage)
Jumping ahead a couple of decades, Mike Carey’s 2014 Mountaineers are the only 30-win team in WVU’s history. With that is the Mountaineers’ only Big 12 regular season championship, coming just four years after Carey led WVU to its first 29-win season.
2014 marked WVU’s best performance on the AP’s top 25 poll, with the program reaching its all time highest ranking of No. 5 on March 10 before finishing with the No. 7 spot on the season. The Mountaineers traded positions with the Baylor Bears in the season’s final week after Baylor defeated WVU in the finals of the Big 12 Tournament, 74-71.
Three of the nine Mountaineers to ever play in the WNBA were on the roster for WVU’s winningest season. At the top of that list was Asya Bussie, a 6’4″ senior who averaged just over two blocks to go with 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Bussie was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and the Big 12 All-Defensive Team in 2014, leading to her name being called 15th in the WNBA Draft that same year.
Sophomore Bria Holmes also started for the Mountaineers this season before being selected 11th overall by the Atlanta Dream in 2016. Listed at 6’1″ in college but now measuring at 6’3″, Holmes played a great four seasons at guard for WVU. In 34 games in 2014, Holmes played 26.9 minutes per game and scored 15.2 points per contest. She shot her career-best 34.3% from three as well. Rounding out the team’s future pros was freshman Lanay Montgomery who got just under six minutes in 24 games playing behind Bussie.
The Mountaineers defeated Albany 76-61 to advance to the NCAA Tournament’s second round, where they fell to the unranked LSU Fighting Tigers, 76-67.
2016-2017
Record: 24-11 (.686)
A short three seasons after reaching the 30-win mark, coach Mike Carey brought another one-time accomplishment to West Virginia: a Big 12 Championship. The Mountaineers’ journey to its second conference title was not quite as glamorous as it could have been, however.
The 24-11 record ranks just 10th among all of WVU’s season win percentages and featured a considerable drop in expectations during the year. Ranked No. 22 by the Associated Press in the preseason, the Mountaineers, led by future WNBA players Lanay Montgomery and Teana Muldrow, quickly rose to No. 12 by the end of December. This success came as WVU went undefeated before entering the 2017 calendar year, standing 13-0 after its first conference game against TCU.
In the first week of the new year, however, the Mountaineers lost both of their games, against Kansas State and No. 2 Baylor, by considerable margins. A victory over No. 20 Oklahoma preceded another set of back-to-back losses, and, from there, losing found its way in the mix of WVU’s historic start.
When all was said and done, the Mountaineers ended the regular season 19-10 and unranked. Bright spots entering the postseason, though, came in the form of WVU’s stars. Montgomery finished her senior year averaging 2.8 blocks per game and grabbing 8.9 rebounds to go with 10.6 points per contest. She played just 25.3 minutes per game to do so, as Carey brought her to the bench for many of the Mountaineers’ 13 straight wins to start the year.
6’1″ Teana Muldrow also stood out for WVU, averaging 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 29.7 minutes per game at forward. After jumping to 18.9 points per game in her senior year, Muldrow was drafted 29th by the Seattle Storm in the 2018 WNBA draft. She took the top-scoring spot from Tynice Martin, who had to rest the 2018 season. The 5’11” sophomore averaged 18.6 points per game for the conference champions in 2017.
With a mix of experienced coaching and raw talent, the Mountaineers entered the Big 12 Tournament unproven but more than capable. They took out No. 19 Oklahoma with ease, 82-58 before a narrow win over No. 12 Texas. Martin scored 29 points in the 62-59 victory, while Montgomery blocked five shots. It was the Mountaineers’ defense at the rim that held Texas to 19-for-56 shooting despite a decent 4-for-12 showing from three. WVU held Texas to just five points in the second quarter to gain an edge the Longhorns never quite took back, sending West Virginia to the Big 12 Championship against Baylor.
The Bears were ranked No. 2 in AP’s top 25 poll, but West Virginia dragged them down to fifth to end the season after the 77-66 victory. Four Baylor players scored over 15 points in the loss, but they were nothing compared to the All-Big 12 First Team’s Tynice Martin, who scored 32 points in 38 minutes thanks to a 12-for-15 performance from the free throw line and four-for-nine three-point shooting. Martin earned the Big 12 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honors.
West Virginia defeated Elon 75-62 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 4 Maryland, 83-56. Final AP rankings listed WVU as No. 22 in college basketball.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
