EFFORT — West Virginia guard JJ Quinerly (right) dives on the floor to complete a steal against Pitt on Tuesday. - Kevin Kinder/BlueGoldNews

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia had more trouble overcoming itself than it did overcoming Pitt in the last schedule renewal of the women’s basketball Backyard Brawl, turning up the heat defensively until the offense could come around in the fourth quarter of an 82-54 victory to give them a 3-0 start on the season.

The Mountaineers took advantage of Pitt losing one of its best players in the first minute of the game and then having its other best player Khabija Faye foul out in the third quarter, but in the end it was the defensive pressure that the nation’s No 15 team always applies that made the difference.

The Mountaineers overcame a dismal night of shooting, especially from 3-point range, by forcing 30 turnovers.

They needed all of them to keep their identity while they were making just 2 of 21 3s through the first three quarters of the game, most of them wide open looks, before nailing a few in a 26-point fourth quarter that put the game away.

“Not great flow, there was too many fouls, especially in the second quarter and the game just slowed down,” Coach Mark Kellogg said.

That threw the Mountaineers off their game and they wound up having to attack the rim, scoring 42 points in the paint. Normally, when they get a lot of points in the paint it comes from fast breaks off steals, but while they forced those 30 turnovers, many were dead ball turnovers that led to only 34 points.

“We wanted to get to the rim. We wanted to attack the paint regardless of what defense they used,” Kellogg said, having faced a zone through much of the evening. “To get 42 points in the paint and get to the free throw 27 times was good, because we obviously shot horrific from 3.”

JJ Quinerly, the Mountaineer star who is off to a slow start this year, really was frustrated. While she led the Mountaineers with 17 points, it came on 7 for 23 shooting, 0 for 10 from 3. For the first three games she is 15 of 48 shooting, 31.3%.

“I don’t think we will see that too often,” Kellogg said. “Maybe she took a few too many.”

The first three games, with Texas A&M coming in next, were important, Kellogg said.

“Just to get our identity back. We did it tonight against another Power 4 team, which we hadn’t done yet this year,” Kellogg said. “We just stayed with it and kept our composure. I thought it got a little chippy there late but that’s the stuff we get to learn from and talk about.’

The night could not have had a worse start for Pitt, who watched Kylee Blacksten swish a 3 with the Mountaineers’ first shot while their own Amiya Jenkins went to the floor with a non-contact injury.

Right away you knew this was not just a twisted ankle or knee as she screamed out in pain. She was on the floor for quite a while, got help exiting the floor and was carried to the locker room with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

Sometimes an injury like that can throw a wet blanket on performance and the two teams limped through a dismal first quarter that was filled with missed shots and turnovers.

When the buzzer mercifully went off, WVU held just a 12-9 lead, the Mountaineers shooting just 33% and Pitt an even more dismal 27 percent.

The two teams combined for just 2 of 15 from 3-point range.

Quinerly continued her early season struggles. She scored 14 and 11 points in the team’s first two wins and was clanging almost everything she threw at the hoop.

Quinerly, however, always has something coming and one could argue that she shook the team out of its funk with the first basket of the second quarter.

Determined to get going, she dribbled through the entire Pitt team on a snakelike drive to the basket for a layup that was a wake up call for her teammates.

While they were turning Pitt over, they were wasting most of the turnovers but still managed to build a 10-point lead at 28-18.

At that point Quinerly found her stride with two free throws, a basket and another free throw as WVU widened the halftime advantage to 35-25.

Quinerly still was searching for her shot, though, missing all 7 of her 3-point tries in the first half.

Whatever Kellogg told the Mountaineers at halftime — and you can be sure it wasn’t “nice job” — they took it to heart as after giving up a quick basket they turned Quinerly and Jordan Harrison loose for six straight points in 42 seconds, pushing the advantage to 41-27.

The best thing about the third quarter besides that it ended was how it ended, with Sydney Woodley, a transfer from Long Beach brought in for her defense, stealing the final inbounds pass by Pitt with 3.6 seconds left, drove to the hoop, scored and was fouled.

After making the free throw, WVU had its biggest lead of the game at 56-41 and they managed that despite having hit only 2 of 21 3-pointers, most of them wide open. Quinerly’s 3-point frustrations grew to 0 for 10.

Jordan Harrison had 14 points for the Mountaineers and Sydney Shaw 11 as 11 players scored points for the Mountaineers. Kellogg is using the preseason to work out his rotation and admits that he doesn’t have a full grasp yet on what that rotation will be.

WVU now owns seven straight victories over Pitt.