The WVU Women’s Basketball team tipped off their season Tuesday night against the Towson Tigers in a blowout victory, winning in dominate fashion, 85-41.
In the highly anticipated season opener for the 16th ranked team in the country, the Mountaineers found themselves down early in the second period 18-16, with star guard JJ Quinerly on the bench in foul trouble. It became evident in that moment who was going to step up for WVU, as junior Jordan Harrison put the team on her back, scoring 18 of her 23 points in the first half.
“I knew once I started going a little bit, my teammates would feed off my energy,” Harrison said after the game. “So I was just trying to get something going for us so we could eventually catch our rhythm and we ended up doing that anyway.”
The Mountaineers only held a one point lead after the first quarter of play and Quinerly picked up her second foul a few minutes after that, helping the Tigers take the lead. Harrison, who transferred from SFA with Coach Kellogg a season ago, was asked after the game if she goes into games preparing to have to score like she did that night.
“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Really, I try not to think too hard about that because I never know when it’s going to be my chance to step up. So I try not to think about that too much, but there will be times I know their man will help a lot so I know I’m going to have this pass here.”
Harrison added, “But for the most part, I try not to think about that too much because I want to make sure I’m available and I’m on go mode every time, not just settling for passing.”
Available she was for the Mountaineers, seven of her 13 shots including two of four from three and seven of eight from teh free throw line. Harrison’s 23 points were a new career high during her two seasons at WVU, to go with eight assists and six steals.
“Honestly, I think it’s just a natural response. If I notice my teammates are struggling like getting the ball in the hole, I’ll take over myself to get it to the hole, you know. But other than that, I mean, they’ll do the same thing if I wasn’t scoring. Somebody else will step up and do the same.”
Harriosn’s backcourt partner JJ Quinerly finished her off night still recording 14 points and three steals in just 20 minutes of play.
The Mountaineers will next be in action on Saturday, Nov. 10 at home against Niagara with tipoff scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
