No. 21 WVU Rolls on Saturday Night
November 29, 2014 10:06 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jonathan Holton had a 21-point, 10-rebound double-double to lead 21st-ranked West Virginia to an 86-57 victory over College of Charleston Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers are now one of four teams in the country right now to improve to 7-0 by using a smothering full-court press that really wore the Cougars down as the game wore on.
“We just didn’t have a lot of energy to start the game,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who won his 747th career game tonight to move past Phog Allen and Rollie Massimino into 14th place on the NCAA all-time career victory list. “But we stayed after them and I think we kind of just wore them down a little bit.”
After a Donovan Gilmore dunk to begin the second half, College of Charleston (2-4) didn’t score again until nine minutes later and by that time West Virginia’s lead had grown to 21 points.
The margin later swelled to as many as 34 on two occasions.
Holton’s 21 points were a career high.
“I didn’t think he had the same kind of bounce he’s had in the first half,” said Huggins of Holton. “A lot of that was our fault because we changed some things in the press that we probably shouldn’t have changed and so we got a little lethargic and they weren’t sure what they were supposed to do.”
Jaysean Paige added 15 points and Juwan Staten contributed 10 points in 32 minutes of action. Ten different players scored points as Huggins was able to empty his bench late in the game.
West Virginia (7-0) struggled to find its shooting stroke tonight, hitting only 6 of 20 from 3 and shooting 45.5 percent overall.
The Mountaineers, which came into the game ranked second in the country in steals with an average of 14.2 per game, got 12 against College of Charleston tonight that led to 18 turnovers.
“In the second half we just said let’s go. Don’t let anyone get it in bounds and if they get it in bounds make them get it in a bad position where we can put some pressure on them and hopefully make a play,” said Huggins.
WVU outscored College of Charleston 40-22 in the paint.
Gilmore and Evan Bailey led the Cougars with 13 points each, while Joe Chealey added 10.
An announced crowd of 7,367 watched tonight’s game.
West Virginia has a couple of days to get back into the gym before facing LSU on Thursday night in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at the WVU Coliseum. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
“If the people who enjoy high-level basketball (need to come to the Coliseum) because it’s going to be a high-level, athletic basketball game,” said Huggins. “Their front line is as athletic as anybody we are going to play all year. Maybe not as big as Texas but every bit as athletic or more.
“They play elbows above the rim so it’s going to be a very high-level, athletic, fun-to-watch game and hopefully everybody leaves here happy.”
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