Mountaineers Face Ivy League Foe Penn Friday for First Time Since 1981

Friday, November 18

Morgantown, W.Va.

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

Penn

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Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications

Mountaineers Face Ivy League Foe Penn Friday for First Time Since 1981

November 17, 2022 01:40 PM | Men's Basketball

West Virginia

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia faces Ivy league foe Penn Friday night at the WVU Coliseum in a non-conference game that will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

It's Penn's first appearance in the WVU Coliseum since a 1981 NIT game the Mountaineers won 67-64. The Quakers overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to go ahead by four points only to see West Virginia surge ahead at the end.

The only other meeting between these two teams took place in Philadelphia on Feb. 7, 1922, when Penn claimed a 35-9 victory.

The last time an Ivy League school played a regular season game at the WVU Coliseum was Jan. 10, 1973, when the Mountaineers routed Cornell 102-69.

Coach Bob Huggins has never faced an Ivy League team in 1,318 college games.

The Quakers, coached by Steve Donahue, are coming off a 64-59 victory at Drexel on Tuesday night. Penn's first three games were losses to Iona (78-50), Missouri (92-85) and Towson (80-74).

Junior guard Jordan Dingle leads the Quakers with an average of 19.8 points per game. His scoring support comes from backcourt mate Clark Slajchert, a 6-foot-1 junior who averages 15 points per game.

Penn's inside presence is provided by Nick Spinoso, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound sophomore, who shows averages of five points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

The Quakers were predicted in the preseason coaches' poll to win the Ivy League this year.

West Virginia (3-0) is coming off a 75-57 victory over Morehead State Tuesday night. Texas transfer Tre Mitchell, getting his first start of the season, scored 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, while adding six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

"He didn't play for two and a half, three months," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said of Mitchell, a 6-foot-9, 225-pound senior forward. "He's still now not in very good shape. As he continues to get in shape, I think he will continue to get better. I think you're seeing why we were very excited about getting him."

Bigs Jimmy Bell Jr. and Mohamed Wague added 10 points each. Wague, a 6-foot-10, 225-pound sophomore from the Bronx, New York, connected on 5 of his six shot attempts and has made an impressive 14-of-16 for the season.

Wague (87.5%), Mitchell (68.2%), guard Kobe Johnson (75.0%), Mitchell (68.2%), Bell (66.7%), forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. (56.5%) and guard Erik Stevenson (50.0%) are all shooting better than 50% from the floor so far this season.

Five different players are averaging double figures, led by Mitchell at 14 points per game.

WVU's average margin of victory in its three games this season is 20.3.

Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and David Kahn begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network.

Satellite radio coverage is on SiriusXM channel 380.

Tickets for Friday night's game remain and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.

Earlier today, West Virginia announced that Manhattan transfer Jose Perez is officially enrolled in school, but his eligibility status for games and practices have yet to be determined. The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 18.9 points per game last year for the Jaspars and he was the MAAC preseason player of the year. Perez opted to transfer when Manhattan coach Steve Masiello was fired before the start of the season.