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Mountaineers, Colonels Meet Monday Night
December 20, 2015 03:49 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s final pre-Christmas game will take place on Monday night at the WVU Coliseum when the 20th-ranked Mountaineers take on Eastern Kentucky in a 7 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Colonels are coming off an eight-point loss to East Tennessee State on Friday night and also show recent loses to Kentucky and Marshall.
Eastern Kentucky is 8-5 so far under first-year coach Dan McHale, a Kentucky graduate who replaced former WVU assistant coach Jeff Neubauer, now coaching at Fordham.
Neubauer had a successful 10-year run at Eastern Kentucky where he won 20 or more games in a season five times and made two trips to the NCAA tournament, most recently in 2014. McHale has some Neubauer holdovers, but a couple of transfers have given him most of his offense this year.
Rhode Island transfer Jarelle Reischel, a 6-foot-7-inch forward, is averaging 19.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game and is shooting a very solid 53.7 percent from the floor. Reischel is also second on the team with 20 3-point field goals.
USF transfer JaVontae Hawkins, a 6-foot-5-inch forward, shows averages of 17.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while another transfer, 6-foot-1-inch point guard K.J. Bluford from Iowa State, is averaging 6.8 points per game coming off the bench.
McHale was a student manager for Tubby Smith at Kentucky and later worked with Rick Pitino and Kevin Willard before spending the last two seasons with Richard Pitino at Minnesota.
The Colonels are playing at a much faster pace under McHale than in the past, averaging 85.7 points per game while shooting an impressive 50.3 percent from the floor so far this season.
Eastern Kentucky is 7-0 at home but is only 1-5 away from McBrayer Arena – all six true road games.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off an 18-point victory over Marshall on Thursday night in Charleston to boost its record to 9-1. The Mountaineers got 15 points from Jevon Carter and 14 from Daxter Miles Jr. against the Herd.
WVU is averaging 85.9 points per game and continues to lead the country in steals, 3-point field goal percentage defense, forced turnovers and offensive rebounds per game.
Junior forward Devin Williams is one of four double-digit scorers for the Mountaineers, the Cincinnati, Ohio, resident averaging 16.2 points per game while also pulling down an average of 9.5 rebounds per game.
Miles Jr. (12.9 ppg.), Carter (12.7 ppg.) and senior guard Jaysean Paige (10.1 ppg.) are the Mountaineers’ other double-figure scorers. Paige is leading the team with 16 3s, senior forward Jonathan Holton is WVU’s top offensive rebounder with 43 while Carter has a team-best 25 steals.
West Virginia is 81-6 in non-conference home games over the last 13 years and has won 56 of its last 60 games at the Coliseum in the month of December.
The Mountaineers are also 95-28 in games played at the Coliseum under coach Bob Huggins.
Following Monday night’s contest against Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia will break for Christmas and then will resume non-conference play against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Wednesday, December 30.
That will be WVU’s final non-conference tilt before opening Big 12 play at Kansas State on Saturday, January 2.
Tickets for Monday night’s Eastern Kentucky game are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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