Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Taz Sherman's 18 points leads West Virginia to a 60-53 season-opening victory over Oakland Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
 
The Mountaineers, playing this year without Deuce McBride and Derek Culver, had the look of a team trying to discover its identity tonight against a Golden Grizzlies team that threw a variety of zone defenses against them.

"They do a great job with that zone and we're not very good yet," were West Virginia coach Bob Huggins' initial remarks following tonight's contest. Huggins won his 901^st career game and is now just one shy of tying Bob Knight for fifth place on the NCAA all-time Division I wins list.
 
Two more wins will move him into a tie with Roy Williams for fourth place.
 
WVU (1-0) had difficulty finding much offensive rhythm in the first half and trailed for a good portion of the half before going on a 15-5 run to take a 27-23 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
Gabe Osabuohien came off the bench to ignite the rally by drawing charges, deflecting passes, grabbing an occasional rebound and finding open shooters along the wings.
 
Osabuohien remained on the floor at the beginning of the second half to help the Mountaineers build their biggest lead of the game at 17, 50-33, with 11:01 remaining.
 
"I thought we did a better job defensively in the second half," Huggins said. "The second half we actually scored some off of our defense. Gabe made some outstanding plays; he took a bunch of charges which slowed down their penetration into the line.
 
"He was the MVP tonight," Huggins added. "He and Taz are going to have to carry us."
 
Oakland (0-1) fought back to reduce West Virginia's advantage to six, 53-47, on Micah Parrish's 3 with 6:29 left. A Sherman jumper and a Kedrian Johnson transition dunk built the lead back to 10 with 4:41 to go.
 
The lead was also 10 with 1:48 remaining on two Malik Curry free throws.
 
Sherman's game-high 18 came on just 7 of 18 from the floor, including 1 of 7 from 3. Sherman was struggling with calf cramps for a good portion of the second half.
 
Sean McNeil was the only other Mountaineer player to reach double digits with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting.
 
Osabuohien's stat line included 6 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, a steal and several drawn charges that led to Osei Price and Jamal Cain fouling out of the game, and point guard Jalen Moore finishing with four fouls.
 
Moore, on this year's Lou Henson Award watch list and considered one of the top point guards in mid-major basketball, had an awful night against a wave of West Virginia defenders. He finished with only 4 points on 2 of 16 shooting with 13 turnovers.
 
"(Kedrian Johnson and Malik Curry) did a great job on him," Huggins said. "And Gabe did a great job of stopping his penetration."
 
Cain led Oakland with 15 before fouling out with 1:48 to go. Trey Townsend scored 12 and Parrish added 10.
 
Neither team shot the ball well from 3, Oakland missing 20 of its 23 attempts and West Virginia making just 4 of 21. Oakland also committed 25 turnovers and shot 35.5% from the floor.
 
West Virginia, too, struggled shooting the ball making only 39.7% of its 58 field goal attempts. The Mountaineers were only 55.8% from the free throw line and the most alarming statistic was Oakland's 48 to 33 advantage on the glass.
 
During one sequence in the first half, Oakland grabbed four straight offensive rebounds before Blake Lampman got one to drop. Eight of Parrish's game-high 12 rebounds came on the offensive glass.
 
Eleven different players got into the game for West Virginia and nine ended up getting into the scoring column.
 
"The biggest thing is we need to learn to pass the ball," Huggins said. "We dribble the ball way, way, way too much. You dribble the ball to attack the basket. You don't dribble the ball to go sideways or backwards. I've got no problem throwing it behind your back if you're going somewhere with it, but when you're not going anywhere with it why in the hell would you do that?"
 
The Mountaineers have a quick turnaround with Friday night's Backyard Brawl looming. Pitt lost 78-63 to The Citadel earlier tonight in Pittsburgh.
 
There are not many tickets remaining for Friday night's game against the Panthers, which will be nationally televised on ESPNU. Those tickets left can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.