West Virginia University women’s basketball player Jordan Harrison (10) dribbles down court during a game against Houston earlier this season. (Photo by Benjamin Powell)

MORGANTOWN — According to ESPN pregame analytics, the 12th-ranked WVU women’s basketball team has a 96.2% probability of beating Miami (Ohio) in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday.

Why it’s not a full 100%, we can only guess that ESPN isn’t aware of the Jordan Harrison factor. She doesn’t lose, at least not in the first game of a postseason college tournament. Ever. One and done is just not Harrison’s thing.

“I think that’s just simply the expectations for myself,” the WVU point guard said. “I don’t want to lose in any tournament.”

Going back to Harrison’s days as a freshman at Stephen F. Austin. Her first postseason game was in the WAC quarterfinals. That was a win, one in which Harrsion finished with 13 points and 10 assists. Stephen F. Austin played in the WNIT that season. In the first round, Harrison poured in 28 points against Texas State in, you guessed it, another win.

Since her transfer to WVU, the Mountaineers have never felt the bitter taste of a first-game loss in either a Big 12 tournament game or the NCAA tournament.

That included wins against Cincinnati and Princeton as a sophomore and 20th-ranked Kansas State and Columbia last season.

WVU (27-6) played Arizona State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament this season. The 67-54 victory kept her a perfect 7 for 7 in postseason opening games. A victory against the RedHawks (28-6) at 5 p.m. Saturday would make her 8 for 8.

Getting Harrison out in an early round has been like trying to keep Steph Curry from shooting 3-pointers. Is it possible? Only in theory.

“When you get to that first game, all you think about is getting to play in that second game,” said Harrison, who is a finalist for national Defensive Player of the Year. “The goal is just to get over that hump. I don’t want to go home early.”

That’s shown in her play. First-round jitters have never seemed to plague Harrison, who has averaged 17.4 points and 5.1 assists per game in the first games of a postseason tournament.

In the Big 12 tournament, she was named the Most Outstanding Player after averaging 15.3 points and 3.3 steals per game in wins against Arizona State, Colorado and TCU.

“Obviously, I’ve seen Jordan from day one,” said WVU head coach Mark Kellogg, who also coached Harrison at Stephen F. Austin. “I’m just so happy that Jordan’s getting to kind of showcase the ability that she has. She typically goes to the best guard for sure when we’re in the man. Obviously, we know what she does in the press and how effective she is there. And then I think it’s just contagious.”

Harrison will enter Saturday’s game with 104 steals on the season, which ranks ninth in the nation. That’s 10 steals shy of Jenny Huillen’s school record set in 1989. She’s also got 1,730 career points and 656 career assists.

Funny thing is, Harrison said she would trade in all of that to get the Mountaineers over an even bigger hump and into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1992. To do that requires WVU to beat the RedHawks and then beat the winner of the Kentucky-James Madison first-round game. The second-round game is scheduled for Monday.

“I want to win that second game,” Harrison said. “We can’t look forward, but I don’t want this season to end like so many others have. I want to do something that hasn’t been done yet.”

Harrison’s streak actually runs back as far as her senior season of high school at Classen SAS (Oklahoma City), when she helped guide the Comets to the 2022 Oklahoma AAAA girls’ state championship.

That’s where the streak ends, though. As a junior and also during her freshman season of high school, Harrison felt the sting that comes with a first-round departure.

“Those hurt,” she said. “I do not want to be on the receiving end of that ever again. It hurt, because we were all so competitive and we had big goals. I don’t ever want to see that again.”