Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used spurts at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half to defeat Morehead State 75-57 here at the WVU Coliseum Tuesday night.
 
Forward Tre Mitchell, making his first start of the season, poured in a game-high 21 points while bigs Jimmy Bell Jr. and Mohamed Wague contributed 10 points each.
 
The Mountaineers used their size advantage to outscore the Eagles 42 to 26 in the paint, but it was their perimeter defense that forced 20 turnovers leading to several run-out baskets. Morehead State miscues late in the half contributed to West Virginia's 8-2 run and a 37-28 halftime lead.
 
Then, a 16-3 run over a five-minute stretch at the midway point of the second half turned a competitive game into a rout.
 
"I think our upperclassmen decided to take over and play the game the right way," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who is now one win away from tying Jim Calhoun for third place on the men's all-time Division I victory list with 920. "Then it kind of rolled from there."
 
West Virginia's biggest lead was 26 points with 7:23 left when Huggins began to substitute liberally, and the game turned into a playground affair.
 
Mitchell made 8 of his 10 field goal attempts, was 5 for 5 from the free throw line, pulled down six rebounds and made two steals in 19 minutes of action.
 
"I thought he played very comfortably," Huggins said of the Texas transfer. "He can score in a variety of ways, which really helps."
 
Wague, who came into the game making 9 of his 10 field goal attempts, was 5 of 6 tonight to continue his impressive play around the glass. Jimmy Bell Jr.'s first double-digit effort as a Mountaineer consisted of 3 of 4 from the floor and 4 of 6 from the free throw line. The senior grabbed a team-best eight rebounds.
 
"Jimmy is always going to give us effort and he scored the ball a little bit more today," Huggins said.
 
West Virginia (3-0) shot 54% in the first half before cooling off to 46.8% for the game.
 
Thirteen different players got into tonight's contest and nine ended up getting into the scoring column. The game's other telling stat was points off turnovers, WVU leading that category 32 to 9.
 
"I think we're getting better (defensively), and I continue to say that" Huggins said. "I'm a little disappointed in that we threw some guys in there at the end because we wanted them to play and get better. And they certainly didn't get better."
 
Forward Alex Gross scored 12 and guard Mark Freeman contributed 10 for Morehead State, predicted to finish first in the Ohio Valley Conference this year. The Eagles fall to 2-2.
 
Tonight's announced attendance was 9,417.
 
West Virginia has a quick turnaround with a Friday night game at the Coliseum against Penn, which got its first victory of the season earlier tonight in a cross-town game against Drexel in Philadelphia.

"I think Penn is going to be good for us because they're a ball-control offense that we're going to have to work really hard to take them out of and speed the game up a little bit," Huggins said. 
 
After that, WVU will travel out to Portland to face Purdue next Thursday night in the first game of the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament. The field also includes No. 2 Gonzaga, No. 7 Duke, Florida, Xavier, Oregon State and Portland State. The Mountaineers will also play games out there on Friday and Sunday.