MORGANTOWN — Mark Kellogg said he sensed a difference in J.J. Quinerly upon her return from Christmas break.
There was an increased feeling of purpose, maybe a heightened sense of urgency.
“She’s looked different since she’s come back,” Kellogg said. “She looked great in practice. I think she has her mind cleared.”
It definitely showed over the first half Wednesday, as the No. 18 WVU women’s basketball team cruised to an 80-58 victory inside the Coliseum against UCF for the Mountaineers’ initial Big 12 win of the season.
Quinerly poured in 17 points — not for the game — but just in the first quarter alone.
There were drives to the bucket with some determination and some pull-up jumpers that fell true.
Quinerly got to the foul line five times in the quarter and made four.
For good measure, she also had a 3-pointer in the quarter that saw the Mountaineers (11-2, 1-1 Big 12) run out to a 32-10 advantage.
“If you had come and watched practice the last few days, you would have easily been able to tell who our best player was and who is our most talented offensive player, for sure,” Kellogg said. “I’m happy for her to get going. It was a phenomenal first half from her standpoint.”
By the time it was all said and done, Quinerly had scored 31 points, her fourth career game with at least 30.
“Good players rise to the occasion,” UCF head coach Sytia Messer said. “I saw her leading her team to a victory.”
In Quinerly’s words, she said the extended time off for Christmas helped her relax and reset.
The Mountaineers were coming off a disturbing 65-60 loss to Colorado just before the break, a game in which WVU let a 16-point second-half lead slip away.
That could have served for a lot of motivation for Quinerly.
Or maybe it was just the opportunity to get away from the game that made the most difference to her.
“I would say it was a little bit of both,” she said. “That loss kind of hurt. We were expected to go out there and win that game. Christmas, I was home with the family and got a little break. I was able to free my mind.”
Sydney Shaw also got in on the action, as WVU took a comfortable 50-16 lead at the break. Shaw had 16 of her 19 points and four of her five 3-pointers in the first half.
Had it not been for that quick start by the Mountaineers, UCF (7-5, 0-2) could have easily made this a competitive game.
The Knights outscored WVU 42-30 in the second half, while forcing the Mountaineers into 16 of their 23 turnovers.
“Obviously I was disappointed in the second half,” Kellogg said. “I think there’s two ways to look at it, one of which you get a lead that big, you don’t have to be great in the second half.
“Or, if you want to be elite, you probably need to put 40 minutes together, I tend to look at it that way. We didn’t. We relaxed on defense and lost our edge.”
WVU’s lone spark in the second half may have come from freshman forward Jordan Thomas, who scored seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, WVU shot just 33.3% in the second half.
“We’re working on keeping our foot on the gas,” Shaw said. “They scored on nine of 12 possessions at one point, and we started to struggle on offense. It looked like we were backing up a little bit. We have to work on staying aggressive no matter what the score is.”
