Mountaineers, Panthers to Meet in Cancun Challenge Tuesday Night

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia resumes play in the 2019 Cancun Challenge with a Tuesday night matchup against undefeated Northern Iowa at the Hard Rock Hotel in Riviera Mayo, Mexico.

West Virginia defeated Northern Colorado and Boston University last week in preliminary games on campus. In a 69-44 victory over the Terriers last Friday night, West Virginia got 21 points and 10 rebounds from outstanding freshman Oscar Tshiebwe.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo native made his first seven field goal attempts and finished the game shooting 10-of-13 from the floor. Tshiebwe's performance was very similar to his Friday night effort at Pittsburgh when he scored 20 points and grabbed a season-best 17 rebounds.

In between, he's had somewhat ordinary games against Akron and Northern Colorado so getting Tshiebwe to even things out a little bit is one of coach Bob Huggins' priorities.

However, Huggins knows what he's getting from senior guard Jermaine Haley, who is coming off a 13-point performance against Boston U. following the first double-double of his career against Northern Colorado when he scored 18 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.

Haley has been West Virginia's most consistent player since last year's loss at Baylor, a 14-game span in which he's averaging 15.4 points and has failed to reach double figures just twice. The Vancouver, British Columbia, resident is one of four double-figure scorers heading into Tuesday night's game with an average of 12.8 points per contest.

Let the games begin! ????@CancunChallenge ????#HailWV | #CancunHoops ?????? pic.twitter.com/v1MRrL64U9
— WVU Basketball (@WVUhoops) November 26, 2019

Tshiebwe is right behind Haley at 12.5 points per game while grabbing 9.8 boards per outing; sophomore forward Derek Culver shows averages of 10.8 points and 5.5 rebounds while sophomore Emmitt Matthews Jr. is averaging an even 10 points per contest.

Three of West Virginia's four victories so far this year have been by double-digit margins with an eight-point win over Northern Colorado being the other.

Northern Colorado happens to be the only common opponent West Virginia has with UNI, which defeated the Bears 77-72 in overtime back on Nov. 16.

Five of the Panthers' six victories this year have come in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with the other being a 10-point road win at Northern Illinois.

UNI currently ranks seventh in the country in 3-point field goal attempts with 164 for an average of 27.3 per game. The Panthers are shooting 33 percent from behind the arc and four players already have made double-digit 3s in 6-5 junior guard Trae Berhow (16), 6-1 senior guard Spencer Haldema (13), 6-4 sophomore guard A.J. Green (12), and 6-7 senior guard Isaiah Brown (10).

All four are expected to be in Tuesday night's starting lineup along with 6-9 sophomore forward Austin Phyfe, who averages 10.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

UNI, under veteran coach Ben Jacobson, is shooting 44.6 percent overall as a team and will provide a stern test for West Virginia's defense, which has limited opponents to just 34.7 percent from the floor so far this season.

No opponent has shot better than 38.7 percent so far against the Mountaineers.

Tuesday night's game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network (Brett Dolan and Pete Gillen).

The Mountaineer Sports Network's state-wide radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday night's game will be the first-ever meeting between West Virginia and Northern Iowa.

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Players Mentioned

Derek Culver

Jermaine Haley

Emmitt Matthews Jr.

Oscar Tshiebwe

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