WVU Jordan Harrison up to shoot against Texas Southern defenders

MORGANTOWN — Jordan Harrison surpassed 1,000 career points Monday in a West Virginia uniform. They didn’t all come in the Mountaineers’ 109-40 victory against Texas Southern inside the Hope Coliseum.

It just seemed like they could have.

“I knew at the beginning of the season I was closing in, but I didn’t know I was this close or it was going to be this game,” said Harrison, whose 17 points gave her 1,004 for her WVU career. “It’s great. I’m glad to have my name in the book on that.”

If the game of basketball is encased in numbers, the Mountaineers (8-2) put up some interesting ones against the Tigers (3-5).

WVU’s 69-point margin of victory was just one point shy of the largest victory under head coach Mark Kellogg, who celebrated his 50th birthday Monday and was presented with a special cupcake at the postgame press conference by Harrison and WVU forward Kierra Wheeler.

It was the fourth time the Mountaineers surpassed the century mark under Kellogg and WVU forced a season-high 35 turnovers.

WVU turned those turnovers into 54 points.

“After the first six or seven minutes, I thought we began to settle in,” Kellogg said. “It’s something we have to work on with these guys to get all five going. We’d be pressing and four of them would be working and they would throw it over the top and maybe the (fifth player) wasn’t.”

Harrison went over the century mark with a 3-point shot with 4:49 left in the third quarter that gave the Mountaineers a 79-32 lead. She scored an additional 411 points as a freshman at Stephen F. Austin – where she also played for Kellogg – giving her 1,415 for her college career.

“In this day and age, with transfers and everybody moving around; we talk about it a lot as a staff in what now is a 1,000-point scorer?” Kellogg said. “If you get half of them here and half at a previous school, do we put you up on a wall? Do we not? I’m not sure I have the answer to that, but now I don’t have to worry about it with Jordan.

“She goes into the record book. She is now part of an exclusive club. She probably downplayed it a little bit, but she’s in exclusive company now. Love that kid to death. She’s been with me since Day 1.”

Wheeler also put on a scoring display by putting up 23 points in 23 minutes of action. What made that a little more impressive is she didn’t score a single point in the first quarter and then didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter.

“There were a few mismatches. We knew that coming into the game,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t start off the game very well and coach Kellogg sat me down. It gave me a chance to come back in and readjust myself.”

Wheeler nearly pulled off a triple-double, finishing with eight rebounds and six assists.

“She’s a very capable offensive player,” Kellogg said of Wheeler. “I loved the six assists against just two turnovers. That’s the next step I’ve been wanting to see from her on the offensive end. I’m still challenging her to go on the defensive end.”

WVU had six players score in double figures and shot 51% (37 of 73) for the game. WVU starting center Jordan Thomas didn’t get in on the rout. She’s nursing an unspecified injury.

“She’s basically day-to-day,” Kellogg said. “We expect her back.”

Carter McCray took Thomas’ spot in the lineup and finished with 12 points. Sydney Woodley came off the bench and added 12. Gia Cooke had 14 and Sydney Shaw added 11.