Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Guard Deuce McBride's 30 points powered third-seeded West Virginia to an 84-67 victory over No. 14 Morehead State in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
Tonight's victory was the 900^th of Bob Huggins' long and storied coaching career, putting him in an elite group of only five other coaches in NCAA history to do so.
 
One of those, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, won his 916^th game earlier tonight against San Diego State and will meet West Virginia on Sunday at 5:15 p.m. at Bankers Life Field House in downtown Indianapolis.
 
Tonight's game actually ended early Saturday morning, and turned in West Virginia's favor with 13 minutes to go after Ta'lon Cooper's driving layup pulled the Eagles to within one, 46-45.
 
Jalen Bridges, who contributed 15 points for the Mountaineers, answered with a 3 and then McBride made a steal at midcourt and went in for a driving layup. He was struck on the head by Devon Cooper as he scored and the officials ruled it a flagrant-one foul after reviewing it on the replay monitor.
 
McBride was awarded two free throws, which he made, and West Virginia also got possession of the ball underneath its own basket. McBride tossed the inbounds pass off the back of T.J. Hunt, who fouled him while attempting to score. McBride made two more free throws to give the Mountaineers six points on a single trip down the floor. 
 
In a matter of 29 seconds a one-point lead became a 10-point advantage.
 
"That was a big play," Huggins said. "I think whether it would have ended up being six or three, I think the way we played from then on was pretty good."
 
Bridges knocked down another 3 to give West Virginia a 15-point lead with 5:36 remaining, and the margin eventually swelled to 18 with 24 seconds left on freshman Taj Tweatt's short jumper.
 
McBride tallied 18 of his game-high 30 points in the second half – one shy of his career high. He made 11 of his 17 field goal attempts, including three-of-four from 3-point distance. The sophomore also handed out six assists, grabbed six rebounds and made three steals.
 
Bridges' 15 came on six-of-eight shooting, including three-of-five from behind the arc. Sean McNeil added 13 and Derek Culver, who failed to make a field goal in the first half, finished with 12.
 
West Virginia led 38-31 at halftime, but let an early 11-point advantage evaporate midway through the first half.
 
Culver's second-half scoring against Morehead State's outstanding 6-10 freshman center Johni Broome was a contributing factor in West Virginia's double-digit lead.
 


"I was concerned that all of our points were coming from the perimeter, but Derek got going and when Derek gets going he's pretty good," Huggins said.
 
Huggins said Culver's difficulties in the first half were a matter of mechanics.
 
"He was going too fast," Huggins said. "He was excited to play in the NCAA Tournament and I think all of those guys were. It got taken away from them a year ago and they all looked forward to it so much and I just think he got going way faster than he was capable of handling it.
 
"Once he got slowed down he scored the ball pretty well for us in there."
 
Turnovers were Morehead State's undoing tonight. The Eagles' 18 miscues led to 24 West Virginia points, 20 coming in transition. That overshadowed a 52% shooting performance from the floor and a four-rebound advantage on the glass.
 
"We definitely wanted to make them feel uncomfortable, which we did," McBride said. "It was about us applying pressure and getting up in those (passing) lanes and making everything hard for them."
 
Cooper scored 21, Skyelar Potter 18 and Broome added 10 for Morehead State, which concludes its season with a 23-8 record.
 
Following tonight's win, West Virginia players celebrated Huggins' 900^th victory on the floor with their coach.
 
"It means a lot, him being really the only major coach from a D-I school to offer me," McBride said. "Thinking back to that time he really showed a lot of loyalty and a lot of trust and being able to be here for that 900^th win it means a lot and I'm really happy we got it done today."
 
"I love those guys and it's gratifying that they can be a part of it," Huggins said. "They enjoy it a lot more than I do, but that's pretty neat. When they have something to look back on and share with whomever hopefully it's one of the positive things that happened in their athletic career.
 
"It took them long enough, though," Huggins added dryly. "It took us three games to finally get there."
 
West Virginia (19-9) advances to meet old Big East rival Syracuse on Sunday. The 11^th-seeded Orange had no trouble disposing of sixth-seeded San Diego State 78-62 earlier tonight.
 
Sunday's game will be the 51^st all-time meeting and the first since 2012.