For the second straight season, West Virginia women's basketball finds themselves in the Round of 32, with a chance to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
Last year, West Virginia fell short of knocking off top-seeded Iowa, and this year, they will look to avenge that loss and make their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1992 when they face No. 3 North Carolina on Monday.
The Tar Heels enter Monday having taken down Oregon State, with UNC outscoring them 30-9 in the third quarter, after leading by just two at halftime.
"They came out and kind of changed defenses and looked like they made some nice halftime adjustments and, you know, really turned it up, turned up the pressure. This is an elite, elite defensive team in North Carolina. They're extremely hard to score against, and then they pose all sorts of, you know, problems on the offensive end just because of, you know, they can spread it out. They're very balanced, lots of different kids, kids that come off the bench that can score, and they do it in multiple ways," West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg said.
"So this is what happens when you get into these Round of 32-type games, Sweet Sixteen-type games. You're getting quality teams that are very well coached, and yeah, they just spread you around and, like I said, do it a lot of different ways, but really, really good on the offensive end and then elite defensively."
North Carolina is a team that relies upon their stout defense, but they then have the ability to turn it on offensively as well. UNC ranked second in the ACC in scoring defense, second in opponent field goal percentage, and third in turnover margin this season. At the same time, they had the fifth-most three-pointers made in the ACC this year.
"Their positioning is great, their rotations are great, they're tough they're physical, they do a good job rebounding the basketball. I mean and some of it is even just like in transition they don't turn it over very much offensively, and a lot of people don't realize your defense starts with I think, shots you take, what you do on the offensive end dictates what you do on the defensive end. And they just do a good job of getting into their stuff on the offensive end taking the right shots so their transition defense is really good and then they can set and get set defensively and that's when they're pretty elite," Kellogg said.
The Mountaineers will be playing on the road on Monday night, but it's something they're hoping past experiences have helped prepare them for.
In last year's Round of 32 game, the Mountaineers played in front of 14,324 in Iowa City, Iowa, facing off against Caitlin Clark. That moment has stuck in the minds of players, but the memory of that atmosphere has prepared them for what's expected to come on Monday.
"I think it's going to be kind of hard to beat what we saw last year, and I'm glad that we were in that situation. So now when this situation presents itself, we're prepared and we know what to expect. But I mean, honestly, we're just going to control what we can control in the court. I mean, if they're not scoring and the crowd can't really get into it, so that's just kind of what we're going to stick to," West Virginia's Jordan Harrison said.
Harrison, alongside JJ Quinerly, has been the 1-2 punch that has fueled West Virginia's success this season.
In WVU's win over Columbia on Saturday, the pair scored a combined 50 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds. Quinerly scored 27 of those points and also had seven steals as WVU's press caused havoc.
Quinerly, a finalist for National Defensive Player of the Year, thrives off her defense and the toll it takes on their opponents.
"I would say like yesterday or last game, I think number 12 was kind of breathing hard when we were about to press, and I looked at Jordan, I was like, yeah, we got them," Quinerly said.
West Virginia will be hoping to make more history than they already have. The Mountaineers have 25 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history, and they are also hoping to make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in over three decades.
"I think advancing was a big goal of mine coming into this season and even last season. So last season, we came up short, so definitely this season, I'm looking forward to advancing for sure. I'm going to go into that game like it's my last, and I'm going to play it like it's my last," Quinerly said.
If West Virginia were to lose on Monday, it would be the last game of Quinerly's career as a Mountaineer. Following WVU's win over Columbia, Kellogg said Quinerly would be on the Mount Rushmore of WVU women's basketball players, but knows she still wants to add to her legacy with a win on Monday.
"Our players have talked about leaving a legacy, as a coach, you want to leave a legacy you want to be a part of the best teams in program history, and you know if we get there, I don't want to stop there either so I don't want it to be like that's the all or nothing for us, but there are steps to it and we need to pass that step we need to pass that test and we know it's going to be awfully difficult to win in here against the level of competition that we have," Kellogg said.
Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM ET tonight between West Virginia and North Carolina, with the game to be televised on ESPN2.
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