Mountaineers Even Record With Sunday's Victory Over St. Joe's

Sunday, November 18

Conway, S.C.

4:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

2-2

Saint Joseph's

3-2

Saint Joseph's

West Virginia

Photo by: Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images

Mountaineers Even Record With Sunday's Victory Over St. Joe's

November 18, 2018 06:46 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score West Virginia-St. Joseph's Box Score

By: John Antonik

Lamont West's career-high 27 points helped West Virginia defeat St. Joseph's 97-90 to earn the Mountaineers a third place finish at the Myrtle Beach Invitational at Coastal Carolina's HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina.

West made 8 of 12 from the floor, including 7 of 11 from 3, and hit all four of his free throw attempts to give West Virginia a big boost off the bench.

The Mountaineers (2-2) benefitted from St. Joseph's fouls, the Hawks losing their leading scorer Charlie Brown to fouls 8:07 remaining and West Virginia leading 79-71.

Soon after, Wesley Harris hit a 3 to put the Mountaineers ahead by 11, and their lead swelled to a game-high 14 with 6:01 remaining on Brandon Knapper's 3 from the wing.

Knapper, on the floor in place of injured starter Beetle Bolden, out with a bruised elbow suffered during Friday night's loss to Western Kentucky, logged 24 minutes and scored 9 points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out five assists. More importantly, Knapper turned the ball over just one time and the Mountaineers as a team were credited with just 12 miscues – 10 fewer than they committed in Friday night's loss to Western Kentucky.

"We moved the ball," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "We got open guys the shots they can make."

Sagaba Konate scored 15 and grabbed nine rebounds, Harris contributed 13 points off the bench and Esa Ahmad finished with 12.

Konate, who missed all three of his 3-point attempts Friday night against the Hilltoppers, didn't try a 3 this afternoon, taking all 12 of his shot attempts from inside the arc.

"We made a conscious effort to throw the ball to Sags," Huggins said. "They kind of gang-guarded him in the second half."

Sixty seven of West Virginia's 97 points came from forwards West, Kontate, Harris and Ahmad.

"Those are the guys who we thought were going to be our strength this year," Huggins said.

WVU had a 39-29 advantage on the glass and was able to withstand a 52-percent shooting performance from behind the arc from St. Joseph's, which finished 13 of 25 from there. The Hawks struggled at the free throw line, however, missing 11 to shoot just 60.7 percent.

There were 20 ties and 14 lead changes in the game, which West Virginia led at halftime, 51-49.

St. Joe's largest lead was six points midway through the first half and its final lead was 64-62 on Lamarr Kimble's layup with 13:25 remaining in the game. WVU tied it on Knapper's two free throws and gradually got it to five on more free throws from West and Ahmad.

"We're getting better," Huggins said. "You can see us getting better. We're playing harder. We're rebounding the ball better and if we can keep it at 12 turnovers we're going to be a pretty good team."

West Virginia returns to the Coliseum to face Valparaiso next Saturday at the WVU Coliseum in a 2 p.m. game that will be televised locally on AT&T Sportsnet.

Later tonight, UCF and Western Kentucky will play for the Myrtle Beach Invitational championship.