BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 7, 2025

Mark Kellogg

Jordan Harrison

JJ Quinerly

T-Mobile Center

West Virginia Mountaineers

Postgame Press Conference

West Virginia 73, Kansas State 69

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by West Virginia Head Coach Mark Kellogg, student-athletes JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison. Coach?

MARK KELLOGG: I think, first, really, really proud of our basketball team and the adversity we faced in that first quarter. That was an onslaught of threes and offensive scoring at its finest for Kansas State.

And credit to them. I think Jeff Mittie is fantastic. I think that basketball team is really, really good. We have played some really good games with them in my two years here. We played in this same quarterfinal a year ago in a really good game.

I think we thought it was going to be a battle. We needed that. We want to continue to be battle-tested. When things didn't go our way, I was the most proud early that we weathered the storm. And we talked about that because that was a storm they came out with and we couldn't get the game slowed down.

After the first quarter when we gave up 33 points, I think they only scored 34 from that point on. And we let our defense come through, which is what we have done all year.

And to the kids' credit, JJ got us going offensively, as she's been in that little zone here lately, and Jordan had to battle that foul trouble, but really proud of her. Shaw made some big free throws. Jordan Thomas is a freshman that keeps getting better.

Yeah, advance. Find a way and advance and keep playing as long as we can in this tournament.

Q. Jordan, what was clicking for you offensively in the second half with 17 points?

JORDAN HARRISON: Honestly, I would say I think my three got me going a little bit. They started going under the screen. So to see some threes go in the basket, just start getting big, and I just went back to what I do, which is getting to the basket.

Q. Jordan, it's a lot of young girls in high school watching you right now. What can you tell them right now to keep their game going?

JORDAN HARRISON: Honestly, stay in the gym and keep having fun. And as you see, I'm 5'4", 5'8" over here, no matter how small or big you are, just do what you do, play hard, have fun, and things like this will happen for you.

Q. JJ, as a leader of this team, what was the message, the energy coming out knowing that you guys have sat for the first couple of days while the team you played got going yesterday?

JJ QUINERLY: Like Coach said, we lost in the same game last year, so for us coming into this game was like a revenge tour, and we wanted to get them back, despite us beating them at home in conference play, but we just wanted to go out there and play our hearts out, just give them nothing easy and just play.

Q. From your perspective on the court, after they put up 33 points in the first quarter, how did you rally your teammates together to lock in and shut them down defensively going forward?

JJ QUINERLY: We all stayed together. I think that's a big part of us. We're going to stay together no matter what, and we somehow came out with that win.

Q. JJ, what does Defensive Player of the Year mean to you, and how have you improved on that side of the ball this year?

JJ QUINERLY: I think my defense is a lot of just kind of knowing where balls are going, maybe baiting people to do things they may not want to do. My teammates help me a lot with that, I think we have a great defensive team so when everybody is clicking it kind of makes it a lot easier for me.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much.