Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Jermaine Haley has an 18-point, 12-rebound, double-double and Derek Culver came off the bench to score 13 second-half points to lead West Virginia to a 69-61 victory over Northern Colorado here at the WVU Coliseum on Monday night.
 
Tonight's game was part of the Cancun Challenge, which will continue on Friday night when Boston University comes to town.
 
West Virginia (3-0) had a 17-point first half lead and led by 10 at the break before going cold in the second half.
 
"We got some points off our defense," Huggins said of his young team's offense success in the first half. "I thought we ran some pretty good stuff and we made some shots. We come out in the second half … and there are going to be spots in the game when you don't make shots and we had pretty good shots in the second half and didn't make them."
 
The dry spell came at the 10-minute mark when the Mountaineers went scoreless for nearly five minutes, which allowed the Bears to tie the game at 54 with 6:18 remaining.
 
Culver ended the drought with a short jumper and Haley followed with a layup off of Jonah Radebaugh turnovers. Another Northern Colorado turnover led to two Culver free throws, and Haley scored again to expand the margin to eight.
 
Two Culver free throws with 3:26 to go made it a 10-point margin.
 
"When you go through a spell when you can't make a shot and you have a 6-foot-10, 260-pounder, you just throw it to him," Huggins said.
 
The sophomore forward hit 7 of 8 from the line tonight to improve to 17-for-19 on the season. He was a 58 percent shooter from the free throw line last season.
 
Culver did not start tonight and afterward Huggins said it was a coach's decision.
 
Freshman Oscar Thsiebwe, who scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds three nights ago against Pitt in Pittsburgh and was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week earlier today, struggled tonight with just 4 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 19 minutes of action.
 
Emmitt Matthews Jr. scored 6 points and grabbed three rebounds after going for 17 and eight at Pitt.
 
"We didn't get out of Emmitt what we got out of him Friday at Pitt," Huggins said.
 
West Virginia shot 48.1 percent from the floor, mostly close to the basket as the Mountaineers tried just nine 3-point field goals, making four.
 
Northern Colorado (2-3) doubled up West Virginia from behind the arc, but it took the Bears 30 attempts to do so.
 
Forward Bodie Hume led Northern Colorado with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. The Bears shot just 37.7 percent from the floor and was out-rebounded 42-24.
 
Tonight's attendance was 9,470.
 
"We're still learning how to play," Huggins said. "The positive is we could have folded but we didn't."
 
Friday night's game at Boston University will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised locally by Nexstar. Mountaineer fans can also follow the telecast via WVUsports.com.