Harrison, Quinerly earn spots on national award preseason watch lists

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 16 West Virginia women’s basketball has one of the best guard combinations in the country in JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison. Both of Mark Kellogg’s talented guards are on preseason watch lists for national awards.

Quinerly, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, is on the Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Watch List. She is one of nine players from the Big 12 up for the award.

Quinerly, an honorable mention All-American last season, averaged a career-high 19.8 points per game in her junior season. She also tallied career-highs in steals (97), assists (89), offensive rebounds (35), shooting percentage (46.2%), three-point percentage (34.4%), and free throw percentage (78.5%). She was named a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Big 12 team earlier this month.

Her backcourt mate, Harrison, is one of 20 players on the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List. This award is given to the best point guard in women’s college basketball, a player who must exhibit the proper “floor leadership, playmaking, and ball-handling skills.”

In her first season at the Power 5 level, Harrison averaged 13.5 points, 5.2 assists and 2.9 steals per game last season. She finished just one steal behind Quinerly for the team- and Big 12-lead in steals. Harrison also finished second in the conference in assists per game and fifth in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Harrison recorded either double-digit points or assists in all but four games last year.

West Virginia is ranked 16th in the AP preseason poll. The Mountaineers begin their season at home against Towson on Tuesday, November 5, at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

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