WVU Rolls on Sunday
November 16, 2014 05:40 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Jonathan Holton scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Devin Williams contributed a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double to lead West Virginia to an 83-56 win over Lafayette Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
Today’s 27-point victory is somewhat surprising considering how poorly the Mountaineers played on Friday night against Monmouth and how well the Leopards played against Robert Morris, beating the Colonials by 27 points in Moon Township on Friday night.
West Virginia (2-0) didn’t shoot the ball particularly well again today, making 38.1 percent overall, but the Mountaineers dominated the glass (50-31), pressured Lafayette all afternoon and put up 35 more shots than the Leopards.
“We made some plays today that we didn’t make in the first game, obviously, or really the exhibition game,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We ran some guys down from behind. We got our hands on some balls and we’ve got to do that. We only shoot 38 percent and we’re missing so many easy shots around the goal.”
Jaysean Paige, who scored 16 points, really gave the Mountaineers a big lift in the first half when his teammates were struggling to find their shooting stroke. He banged in two 3s to give the Mountaineers a six-point lead, and then later hit a driving layup to put them ahead by nine with two minutes left in the first half.
“He made some shots and he’s starting to figure out to take it to the basket and use his athleticism,” said Huggins. “He’s got some athleticism.”
West Virginia held Lafayette scoreless over the remaining 2:29 of the first half to take a 15-point lead into the locker room.
Continuing pressure got the lead to 20, 53-33, and then to 26, and the margin hovered around the 20-point for the remainder of the game.
West Virginia forced Lafayette into 20 turnovers on 11 steals and limited the Leopards to shooting just 30.8 percent from 3 (4 of 13).
“We’ve got to turn people over and make them play faster than they want to play and get them out of sync,” said Huggins.
Juwan Staten scored 10 points and handed out eight assists in 29 minutes of action. “Wanny did a great job of orchestrating things today,” said Huggins.
Dan Trist led Lafayette (1-1) with 12 points.
West Virginia was playing today without Elijah Macon, who is back home in Columbus dealing with family medical emergency, as well as Brandon Watkins and BillyDee Williams, who both missed Friday’s game as well.
“We’re getting better,” noted Huggins. “I thought Jonathan Holton slowed down a lot more today and was much more comfortable and I think everybody was a lot more comfortable.”
West Virginia returns to action next Thursday night against George Mason in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
That game will be televised on ESPNU and will tip off at 7:30 p.m.
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