WVU Women’s Basketball G JJ Quinerly Earns Player of the Week Honors

WVU Women’s Basketball superstar JJ Quinerly continues to receive recognition for her outstanding season, as the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named her one of their National Players of the Week.

Quinerly and the No. 23 Mountaineers only played in one game last week, but they certainly made the most of it, taking down the Iowa State Cyclones in a hotly contested rematch. The junior guard was front and center in that performance, posting a career-high 31 points—including 22 in the second half and 13 in the fourth quarter. Quinerly also added six rebounds and five steals, both team highs, along with three assists.

These honors from the USBWA mark the most recent in a string of national awards for Quinerly. Last week, the Basketball Hall of Fame named her among the top ten of their Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year List, while the Big 12 named her their Player of the Week in early December, when she helped lead the Mountaineers to a ranked win over then-No. 25 Penn State. 

A First Team All-Big 12 member last season, Quinerly leads WVU Women’s Basketball in scoring with 19.2 points per game, tied for No. 25 in the nation. She also averages 3.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, but her biggest statistical contribution may be her 3.4 steals per game, the sixth-best individual mark in the nation and third-best among players in a major conference. 

Quinerly’s hounding defense keys head coach Mark Kellogg’s signature full-court press, which notches the most steals (14.9 per game) of any team in the nation and forces the most turnovers (24.89) of any major program.