Box Score SAN DIEGO - Jevon Carter showed Murray State's Jonathan Stark what it's like playing against college basketball's best on-ball defender.
 
Carter clamped down on the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, the nation's 11^th-leading scorer at 21.5 points per game, and he scored 21 points himself and handed out eight assists in leading the fifth-seeded Mountaineers to an 85-68 victory over 12^th-seeded Murray State here at Viejas Arena in San Diego, California.

"It wasn't just me," Carter said. "We've got a lot of different guys that can guard. Our main focus was to stop him and make other guys beat us and we just did an unbelievable job of team defense today."
 
With the exception of an early 9-8 Racer lead, 18th-ranked West Virginia had complete control of the game throughout, its margin ballooning to as many as 17 points late in the game.
 
Starks, as Oklahoma freshman Trae Young and others have experienced going up against Carter, had a miserable afternoon, hitting just 1 of his 12 field goal attempts and making six free throws to end his outstanding college career with 9 points.
 
If not for 6-foot-8-inch forward Terrell Miller Jr.'s terrific 27-point, 17-rebound performance, Murray would have been completely out of this one.

"Miller, we kept telling our guys for whatever it's been - three or four days - that he can shoot and that's what he does," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "He's a 40 percent 3-point shooter and for some reason they didn't believe us. He had a great game, shot the ball extremely well and rebounded the ball extremely well."
 
Carter got plenty of help from a supporting cast that included freshman forward Teddy Allen coming off the bench to score 16, sophomore forward Sagaba Konate overcoming a slow start to finish with 14 and a team-high seven rebounds and junior Esa Ahmad adding 12.
 
It was Allen, along with backup center Logan Routt, who gave the Mountaineers a big boost early in the game around the rim when they were struggling to make shots.

"We knew that the way they guard screens one of two would be open, so we had to exploit that," Allen explained.

"I think we were either playing too fast or we weren't real focused early because we missed how many shots around the rim," Huggins said. "We couldn't get any to go in. It could have been we were playing faster than we're capable of playing, or we didn't have our head on the rim."
 
West Virginia (25-10) began the game getting plenty of looks near the basket - and missing. The Mountaineers misfired on 13 of their first 17 shots and trailed 9-8 when Ja Morant converted a conventional three-point play with 12:01 to go in the first half.
 
But Wesley Harris got a wing 3 to go down, and Routt gave West Virginia a big lift off the bench by scoring five straight around the basket, including a three-point play when Stark fouled him on a put-back.
 
That play put the Mountaineers ahead by seven.
 
The lead swelled to 27-17 on Allen's reverse layup with 4:22 remaining and became 10 again on Ahmad's open 3 from the corner.
 
Murray State answered with five straight before Ahmad responded with a drive to the basket. Another Ahmad basket on a pretty curl play called from the bench by Huggins following a timeout made it 36-27 with 42.1 seconds left in the half.
 
Then, Carter answered Miller's two free throws by powering his way over Morant for a bucket with five seconds left. He was fouled on the play but couldn't get the free throw to go down.
 
West Virginia recovered from its poor early shooting to hit 11 of its final 16 field goal attempts, but was disappointing on the glass, getting outrebounded by five - 13 of those coming from Miller, who had a double-double by halftime with 12 points.
 
Murray State outrebounded West Virginia, 36-33, for the game, but struggled to handle West Virginia's pressure by turning the ball over 16 times.
 
The much taller, more physical Mountaineers outscored the Racers in the paint, 48-22.
 
West Virginia advances to the second round for the second straight year and third out of the last four seasons to face 13^th-seeded Marshall on Sunday.
 
The Thundering Herd upset fourth-seeded Wichita State, 81-75, in the first game here earlier today.
 
Guard Jon Elmore scored 27 points and Ajdin Penava added 16 points and eight rebounds to give Marshall its first NCAA Tournament victory in school history and setting up a renewal of the old Capital Classic that used to be played in Charleston, West Virginia, a mere 2,315 miles away from San Diego.

"They're going to be ready - ready to see a battle," Carter said. "It's two very good teams going up against each other - in-state rivalry. We'll see what happens."
 
Murray State saw its season end with a 26-6 record. The Racers came into today's game on a 13-game winning streak.

It was the first time West Virginia and Murray State have played each other. The Mountaineers improve to 12-8 under Huggins in NCAA Tournament play and 30-28 overall in 29 tournament appearances.
 
Postgame Notes:

* West Virginia has now won 25 games for a fourth-straight season. WVU's record since the 2015 season when Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. were freshmen is 104-38.

* The Mountaineers have won 19 of their last 30 NCAA Tournament games.

* WVU is now 67-5 under Huggins when shooting better than 50 percent from the floor. Today, the Mountaineers shot 51.6 percent (32 of 62).

* Carter continues to add to his three school records: He now has 233 assists this season; 321 career steals and 103 season steals.