WVU Bags Exhibition Win
November 09, 2014 06:51 PM | General
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Thirteen different players scored in West Virginia’s 109-60 exhibition game victory over Shepherd Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers spent most of the first half trying to get a feel for each other and blending in several new players while playing in front of a crowd for the first time this season.
At halftime, West Virginia led by just 11, 40-29, shot only 5 of 16 from the free throw line and made 3 of 13 from 3. But in the second half the Mountaineers’ pressure wore down Shepherd leading to several easy baskets and a lead that swelled to as many as 52 with 1:59 remaining in the game.
West Virginia made 20 steals and forced 27 turnovers.
“The pressure is designed to have a cumulative affect,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “You get tired. Not just physically tired but you get mentally tired and I thought really when we got things going was when we chased guys down from behind and flipped it out. Then you start looking around because they’re coming from all over the place.”
Preseason Big 12 player of the year Juwan Staten has been slowed by an ankle injury and did not start today, but he did play 18 minutes and scored 11 points. Jaysean Paige also came off the bench and had a productive stat line, scoring a team-high 13 points, grabbing five rebounds and making six steals in just 10 minutes of action.
“Jaysean couldn’t play very long,” said Huggins. “He needs to get up and down a little bit more and get in a little better shape.”
Six different players scored double figures for West Virginia, including 11 each from Devin Williams and Elijah Macon.
“I’m really disappointed in our bigs because I thought they would score the ball much better than they did,” said Huggins. “I’m disappointed in the way we shot free throws in the first half and we didn’t really run any offense. We’ve got to work hard on our offense; our spacing was terrible.”
The Mountaineers used a starting lineup today consisting of Jonathan Holton, Devin Williams and Nate Adrian up front, with freshman Daxter Miles Jr. and Gary Browne in the backcourt.
Browne finished the game with 8 points and two assists running the point, while Miles scored 9 in 15 minutes of action. Eleven different players logged at least 10 minutes worth of playing time this afternoon.
“We’re playing so many guys that we’ve got to get to get them all to do the right thing,” said Huggins. “It’s going to be different guys at different times with this team.”
Shepherd got a game-high 14 points from guard Steffen Davis.
“The more we do this (pressure) and the more we practice this the longer we’re going to be able to do it and do it well,” said Huggins.
In six days West Virginia opens the 2014-15 regular season at the Coliseum against Monmouth. The game will be televised on select West Virginia Media stations and will also be livestreamed on WVUsports.com and WVIllustrated.com.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Two days later, Lafayette comes to the Coliseum for a Sunday afternoon matchup before the Mountaineers travel down to San Juan, Puerto Rico to participate in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Those games will be televised on either ESPNU or ESPN2.
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