The No. 24 West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) held off the Rhode Island Rams (0-1) Tuesday night, 68-64, in the season opener.

Mountaineer redshirt senior guard Gia Cooke led all scorers with a career-high 28 points, while senior forward Zahirah Wilson put in 12 points.

WVU head coach Mark Kellogg met with the media following the game to give his thoughts on the close battle with the Rams.

Opening statement

“Looked like a first game of the year with 10 newcomers and a little inconsistent or a lot inconsistent. Those bookend quarters were not very good defensively, and so that's a little disappointing.

“And offensively, I don't know that we had a lot of flow, not a ton of rhythm. Got the lead in the fourth quarter, which was great to be up 17 with six whatever left, and then just kind of, I don't know if we let off the gas or not. So, it turned into a situation, I guess, which is okay.

“Hey, we got to go through some situations on the back end in the fourth quarter and how to get the ball inbounded and have to make some free throws to kind of put it away.

“Did a lot of things wrong, and that's okay. We'll get better from it. There's a standard, and I don't think we feel very good about the win.

“Credit Rhode Island. I thought they started, they kind of punched. They were confident, kind of played with a nothing-to-lose type mindset and shot it really well there early in that first quarter.

“But actually, thought our response after that in the first quarter was pretty good, and then a really good second quarter followed by an okay third. And then just not a very good finish at all. So, lots to talk about, lots to get better from. But half the country is going to start 0-1 after these couple of days. So, we'll move on and get better.”

Rhode Island junior guard Delanie Hill pouring in 26 points

"She had a great night. 15 (senior guard Sophia Vital), I thought, controlled the whole game offensively. We tried all sorts of different stuff to try to eliminate that.

"Yeah, 33 was a good player. We thought she was coming from Albany, and she was going to be comfortable in that system because she had played for the coach for the last couple of years. She was one of the keys on our scouting report. We lost her. I mean, just way too much. I think she hit a couple with hands in her face that were good, and then the other ones she was just way too open."

"We weren't great defensively. Found no rhythm offensively, but I thought some of our bad offense led to some of their easy offense as well."

The value in playing a quality opponent to open the season

"A ton, and that's why you schedule games like this. Obviously, the Atlantic 10 is a fantastic league. Rhode Island won it a year ago. I know coaching change and things, but they had great success.

"We followed up with another one coming. I think George Washington was picked third in their league, and we play them on Thursday.

"You want to get challenged. It matters at the end of the year who you play. We hope they now go into every game they play and make it look like a really, really good win.

"We wanted to test ourselves, and that's just kind of how it all shaped out."