WVU guard Jordan Harrison dribbles the ball down the baseline during the Mountaineers’ opener vs. Purdue Fort Wayne

MORGANTOWN — Putting any puzzle together begins with finding the edge pieces and working them together, that’s just the basics.

That just might be where Mark Kellogg is right now with fitting together his WVU women’s basketball team. He’s working those edges together, but the complete picture is still a work in progress.

“At times I thought we looked like ourselves,” Kellogg said after the Mountaineers’ 83-47 season-opening win against Purdue Fort Wayne. “We had our identity. For the most part, I thought we competed defensively.”

The next step in filling in that picture begins at 7 p.m. today, when WVU hosts Kent State (0-1) inside the Hope Coliseum. The Golden Flashes are coming off an 80-48 loss against James Madison in which Kent State shot just 1 of 16 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 25 times.

Unlike his first two seasons at WVU, Kellogg is possibly attempting to piece together a completely different puzzle than before. He’s still got talented guards, led by senior Jordan Harrison, who had 15 points, but also four turnovers in the opener.

He’s still got a chaotic full-court pressure defense that forced Purdue Fort Wayne into 31 turnovers.

What he’s also got is some size and strength down low in forwards Jordan Thomas and Kierra Wheeler, who give the Mountaineers a different look than previously.

That look gives the Mountaineers (1-0) a chance to be in the rebounding battle on a game-to-game basis, which was not always the case before. It also allows WVU the opportunity to feed the two forwards with passes into the lane with the hope of scoring some easier baskets.

That was exactly what WVU went for in its opener, as Thomas and Wheeler combined for 26 points and WVU finished with 42 points in the paint.

Those stats sort of come with an asterisk, though, because it could have been so much more. The two forwards only shot a combined 9 of 19 from nearly point-blank range, but did collect seven offensive rebounds and got to the free-throw line an additional 12 times.

“Offensively, we still have a little work to do,” Kellogg said. “We had to get offensive rebounds, because we didn’t make very many first shots. There’s plenty to clean up.”

Which is where the Mountaineers stand today. WVU also struggled from the outside, going 6 of 19 from 3-point range. That’s eventually going to become a key statistic, because if the Mountaineers aren’t scoring from the outside, bigger and stronger defenses will be able to clog up the lanes against Thomas and Wheeler.

There’s also the matter of Kellogg getting his two bigs to be more efficient down low.

“Hopefully we can get them to slow down,” Kellogg said. “I thought we were so sped up, and even in the post, it looked like they were shooting it like it was a bomb exploding. They were just trying to get rid of it so fast.

“Just slow down and take your time to finish.”

WVU will have an interesting matchup down low against Kent State center Riley Rismiller, a 6-foot-4 junior who had 10 points and 12 rebounds against James Madison.

It’s likely WVU’s full-court pressure will provide much of the cushion, which is where Harrison, along with Sydney Woodley and Sydney Shaw come into play. Those three guards combined for 13 of WVU’s 19 steals in the opener.

And then it will be time for WVU to take a step up in competition with games next week against Temple and No. 7 Duke, which means WVU’s puzzle really has to begin piecing together.

“We do have some options,” Kellogg said. “When I say we’re versatile, if we want to throw it inside – if that’s what the matchup calls for – we can do that. If we need to play a little bit more on the perimeter, we have the ability to do that. That’s kind of the versatility that I’m kind of excited to see if we can execute.”