Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Emmitt Matthews Jr.'s 15 points and seven rebounds helped West Virginia to a 76-58 victory over pesky Mount St. Mary's Monday night at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Matthews, who spent one year at Washington after three seasons at WVU, made six of his 10 field goal attempts, including a couple of pretty fastbreak dunks.
 
Texas transfer Tre Mitchell came off the bench to contribute 13 points in just 14 minutes of action, while South Carolina transfer Erik Stevenson chipped in with 10. Stevenson got eight of of those in the second half after spending most of the first half on the bench in foul trouble.
 
Mohamed Wague just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. He also blocked two shot and made a couple of steals.
 
"I'm not happy with the way we guarded and not very happy with the way we rebounded, and we've got to stop turning the ball over," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who collected his 917^th career victory to move him to within three of tying Jim Calhoun for third on the NCAA's all-time wins list.
 
The Mount's Jalen Benjamin led all scorers with 18, but he had to work for all of them making four of 13 from the floor. The 3-ball kept Mount St. Mary's hanging around, particularly in the second half when it connected on six of nine from behind the arc.
 
"I thought we turned them loose too much," Huggins said. "The shots they made were step-in shots that we can't give and they were step-in shots because somebody got beat and we overhelped, or we didn't make a rotation.
 
"We've got a lot of work to do," Huggins added.
 
West Virginia had a 45 to 28 edge on the glass and connected on 14 of its 19 free throw attempts, compared to just 12 of 22 for the Mount.
 
The Mountaineers led 30-18 at halftime.
 
WVU, which struggled mightily scoring close to the basket, had a 32 to 10 advantage in points in the paint tonight. Other specialty stats in West Virginia's favor: bench scoring (40-10), fast break points (15-3), second chance points (17-9) and points off turnovers (19-9).
 
West Virginia led for 35:30 with two lead changes and two ties. Ten of the 11 players who saw action tonight got into the scoring column.
 
"I like the fact that we got to play a bunch of guys, which at this time of the year is really a good thing to do," Huggins said. "Everybody got substantial minutes to show what they can do, or not do."
 
The Mountaineers committed 18 turnovers and only took two more shot attempts than Mount St. Mary's.
 
"When you turn it over 18 times you are not going to get more shots than your opposition," Huggins pointed out. 
 
Dakota Leffew joined Benjamin in double figures for The Mount with 12.
 
This was the sixth time Mount St. Mary's has played in Morgantown and it has lost all six of those decisions. It is the fourth time the two teams have opened the season, also doing so in 2006, 2013 and 2016.
 
Tonight's attendance was 9,960.
 
West Virginia (1-0) has a quick turnaround with a Friday night matchup at Pitt, which defeated Tennessee-Martin 80-58 earlier tonight. The game will be televised on the ACC Network and will tip off at 7 p.m.