Box Score West Virginia advances to the semifinals of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic with an 87-68 victory over Elon tonight at TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina.
 
Guard Taz Sherman scored a career-high 27 points, and backcourt mate Sean McNeil contributed 16 as the Mountaineers improved to 3-0.
 
Sherman's individual line was 9 of 17 shooting, 8 of 9 from the free throw line and five assists.
 
The Mountaineers shot 51.7% from the floor, making 30 of 58,  and trailed for just 1:15 of tonight's game. The victory was coach Bob Huggins' 903^rd, tying him with Roy Williams for the fourth on the NCAA all-time Division I wins list.
 
"I like the fact that we finished the game," Huggins said. "That's about all I can come up with."
 
Two areas where West Virginia struggled in its first two games against Oakland and Pitt – rebounding and free throw shooting – were much, much better tonight.
 
For the first time this year, WVU had a rebounding advantage by out-boarding the Phoenix 39 to 33. Pauly Paulicap did a lot of the good board work by grabbing six in just eight minutes of action.
 
West Virginia also made 21 of its 28 free throw attempts for 75% after connecting on just 52% of its charities in the first two games.
 
Elon (2-2) got 15 points from Torrence Watson and 13 from Hunter McIntosh. Elon shot just 32% in the second half to finish the game connecting at a 36.4% clip. That can be attributed to West Virginia's full-court pressure and Huggins substituting liberally with 14 different guys getting into the game.
 
Huggins said he actually didn't want to press as much as he did tonight because the Mountaineers have two more games in the next three days.
 
"The intention at the start of the game was not to full-court press because I wanted to save as much energy as we could save for the next two (games)," he said. "I didn't want them pressing and running up and down like that because we're not in great shape yet. I didn't think we were going to need to, but we had to make them play faster.
 
"It took them out of what they wanted to do offensively," Huggins added.
 
Freshman Isaiah Cottrell had a nice all-round game for WVU, the Las Vegas resident scoring 9 points, grabbing five rebounds and blocking a game-high three shots. The Mountaineers rejected seven shots overall and forced 17 Elon turnovers. That's 75 forced turnovers in three games so far this season, which is reminiscent of West Virginia's "Press Virginia" days.
 
Afterward, Huggins was somewhat subdued and reflective during his post-game radio show.
 
"We've got 14 guys and they all want to play and you're going to have a little bit of unrest because they all want to play – and I understand that," he said. "I also understand, too, at least when I was growing up in the United States of America, you had to work for what you got. That's kind of gone now, but that's the way used to be and that's the way it's going to be as long as I'm the head ball coach here. They're going to earn their stripes. If they don't like it then go ahead and transfer. 
 
"We lost a McDonald's All-American because he didn't like the fact that we were making him do things that were hard," he added. "But we're fine."
 
Some of the notable specialty stats for West Virginia included 36 points in the paint, 26 points off of turnovers and 41 scores on 69 possessions. Sherman (+28) and Cottrell (+24) were West Virginia's two most efficient players tonight.
 
It will now be an old Big East matchup tomorrow night when the Mountaineers face Marquette in one semifinal round game at 7 p.m.. The Golden Eagles got past Ole Miss 78-72 earlier tonight.
 
Marquette won the last meeting between these two schools at the WVU Coliseum on Feb. 24, 2012. 
 
Former Texas coach Shaka Smart is now coaching the Golden Eagles.