Box Score West Virginia shot 60.6% from the floor in its 89-71 victory over Portland State Friday night in the second game of the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.
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Forward
Tre Mitchell led six double-digit Mountaineer scorers with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting. West Virginia shot a sizzling 65.5% in rolling up 53 points first-half points against the 2-4 Vikings, which lost 102-78 last night to sixth-ranked Gonzaga.
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The two teams combined for 54 personal fouls and 43 turnovers in an up-and-down game that was sloppy at times.
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Portland State players Jorell Saterfield and Mikal Starks fouled out while
Jimmy Bell Jr.,
Joe Toussaint and
Mohamed Wague had four fouls each for the Mountaineers.
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West Virginia's biggest lead was 23 points (89-66) with 1:13 left in the game.
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After a Saterfield 3 to start the game, Mitchell scored 8 of West Virginia's first 17 points as thew Mountaineers built a 17-10 lead. The margin swelled to 10 on an
Erik Stevenson 3 and then to 16 on Wague's fastbreak layup with 3:58 left in the first half.
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Portland State used a 10-0 run to cut West Virginia's lead to 10, 60-50, with 13:02 remaining before Toussaint scored back-to-back baskets to end the run. Two Mitchell free throws and a
Seth Wilson 3 built the lead back to 15, and then six straight points over a two-minute stretch got the margin back to 19 with 6:27 to go.
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Emmitt Matthews Jr, who has been battling a stomach bug, scored 14,
Kedrian Johnson and Wilson contributed 12, while Stevenson and Toussaint added 11 each for the Mountaineers, now 5-1 on the season.
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West Virginia shot 7-of-16 from 3-point distance and assisted on 20 of its 31 baskets tonight. WVU tallied 32 points off Portland State's 24 turnovers and had a 29 to 9 advantage in fastbreak points.
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Guard Cameron Parker led all scorers with 19 points. Hunter Woods added 12 for the Vikings. Portland State made 30-of-38 from the free throw line and outrebounded the Mountaineers 30-27.
Tonight's victory moved coach
Bob Huggins into sole possession of third place on the NCAA all-time Division I wins list with 921. Afterward, he was more concerned about his team's 19 turnovers, many unforced.
"I'm going to fire some guys. I'm teasing," he said. "I mean, we're going to continue to work at it but obviously if they continue to turn it over, we're going to have to put somebody else in."
Huggins said his team is still recovering from a virus that has affected some of the players, especially during Friday night's Purdue loss.
"We're getting better. We were pretty sick yesterday, particularly Emmitt Matthews," he said. "We had some other guys that had the stomach flu and were throwing up and actually throwing up the night before."
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West Virginia will have a day off on Saturday and will face Florida on Sunday in the final game of the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament. The contest will tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
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