Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia took advantage of Pitt's backcourt issues by forcing 32 turnovers in a 74-59 victory over the Panthers Friday night at a sold-out WVU Coliseum.
 
It was coach Bob Huggins' 902 career victory, tying him with Bob Knight for fifth on the NCAA's all-time Division I wins list. His next victory will move him into a tie with Roy Williams for fourth all-time, with just Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski ahead of him.
 
The 14,100 who showed up for tonight's game watched Huggins' Mountaineers consume Pitt's ballhandlers, just as they did Tuesday night when they forced Oakland to turn the ball over 25 times.
 
Sophomore forward Femi Odukale was the most egregious offender mishandling the ball eight times, while Mouhamadou Gueye turned it over six times with Nate Santos and Onyebuchi Ezeakudo fumbling it four each.
 
"I thought our ball pressure was really good," Huggins said. "It's great having those two little guys (Kedrian Johnson and Malic Curry) harass the guy with the ball. It makes it hard for them to enter into offense and get the ball where they want it to go. I thought those guys did a terrific job."
 
It's the most turnovers by a West Virginia opponent since 2016 during its "Press Virginia" days when the Mountaineers forced Western Carolina to turn it over 34 times.
 
Those 32 turnovers were responsible for 34 points, which covered up for some of the other areas where West Virginia is still lacking – namely rebounding and free throw shooting.
 
Once again, WVU was beaten 36 to 20 on the glass and made just 5 of its 11 free throw attempts. In two games so far this season, West Virginia is minus-15.5 on the backboard.
 
"We've got to get a little more consistent offensively and we've got to rebound the ball way, way better than what we're rebounding the ball," Huggins said.
 
Neither of those things really mattered because Pitt couldn't hang on to the basketball long enough to make it matter. As a result, West Virginia was able to get off 19 more shots than Pitt, connecting on 50.8% of its field goal attempts.
 
Sophomore forward Jalen Bridges led everybody with 18 points, those coming on 6 of 9 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3. Each time Pitt tried to make a run, particularly in the second half, Bridges knocked down a 3 to stop it.
 
Senior guard Taz Sherman contributed 17, although he goaled on just 6 of his 20 shot attempts. Guard Sean McNeil scored 11 and Malik Curry came off the bench to contribute 10 on 5-of-5 shooting.
 
"When we took (Curry) people said he's not just going to want to be a point guard who distributes the ball, he's going to want to score because that's what he did at ODU and he's been great," Huggins said.
 
West Virginia (2-0) was 9-of-22 from behind the arc tonight, and outscored the Panthers 21 to 11 in fast break points. Seventeen of Pitt's 32 turnovers were the result of West Virginia steals.
 
WVU's defense also blocked 11 Panther shots – five of those coming from Bridges.
 
"(Bridges) wasn't very good to start and then he got good," Huggins said. "I think moving him around a little bit really helped him. He made some really big blocks and made some huge 3s when they were starting to make runs."
 
The Mountaineers used a 9-0 run during a two-minute stretch late in the first half to take a 34-19 lead following a Bridges 3 with 3:38 left.
 
The lead swelled to 21 at the 10-minute mark of the second half and got there once again with 5:10 remaining. Ten different players saw the floor for West Virginia and eight of them scored.
 
"Our young guys aren't quite ready yet but they will be," Huggins said. "This was good for us, as were the previous two encounters they played in. There are a couple of guys I wanted to get into the game and did get them in."
 
Pitt, which dropped its season opening game on Tuesday night against The Citadel, got 17 points from 6-10 forward John Hugley. Gueye contributed 10 points.
 
The Panthers (0-2) shot 57.5% overall, connecting on 23 of its 40 field goal attempts.
 
The victory was West Virginia's 100^th all-time in the Pitt series, to Pitt's 88, and is the fifth straight dating back to 2012 when the two schools were still members of the Big East Conference. Since the resumption of the series in 2017, the Mountaineers have won all four meetings.
 
It's the most consecutive wins since West Virginia won four in a row from 1976 to 1977 when Huggins was a Mountaineer player.
 
Tuesday night's Oakland win carries some more weight now after the Golden Grizzlies went out to Stillwater and defeated Oklahoma State 56-55.
 
Tonight's attendance was the most ever for a November basketball game at the WVU Coliseum, exceeding the 11,044 that attended the Nov. 26, 2006 game against LSU. That was also the day West Virginia officially retired Jerry West's No. 44.
 
West Virginia returns to action on Thursday, Nov. 18 when it faces Elon in the opening game of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic in Charleston, South Carolina. Other schools in the eight-team field include Marquette, Clemson, Boise State, Temple, Ole Miss and St. Bonaventure.