Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia shot 50% from the floor and doubled up UAB at the free throw line to pull out an 81-70 victory Saturday night before 12,182 at the WVU Coliseum.
 
In a tough, physical, entertaining game that more closely resembled a January conference affair, the two teams combined for 44 fouls leading to 43 free throws.
 
West Virginia cashed in on 22 of its 25 attempts while UAB was just 11 of 18, which turned out to be the difference in the game.
 
The Mountaineers built a 40-31 halftime lead and led 42-31 after their opening possession of the second half before going ice cold. WVU went more than six minutes without a field goal and that allowed the Blazers to take a 47-45 lead on Ladarrius Brewer's layup.
 
West Virginia's next eight points came from the free throw line before Erik Stevenson snapped the field goal drought with a baseline drive with 11:24 remaining to put the Mountaineers ahead 55-49.
 
The lead got to 10 on Emmitt Matthews Jr.'s 3, and then to 13 on Kedrian Johnson's runner from the left side of the lane with the shot clock winding down.
 
The Mountaineers' biggest lead of the night was 15 when Mohamed Wague scored a layup with 3:04 remaining.
 
"They're good. They can play with people in our conference, there isn't any doubt about it," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said of the Blazers. "We thought when we scheduled it that it would be a great game and it was a great game down there last year."
 
West Virginia had 15 fouls to give from its three bigs, Jimmy Bell Jr., James Okonkwo and Wague, and it nearly used them all. Wague fouled out with 2:50 left after Bell picked up his fourth foul with 4:15 to go. Bell almost had another foul called on him when Ty Brewer was fouled driving to the basket, but the officials went to the replay monitor and changed it to Matthews Jr.
 
"Mo is young and Mo will continue to get better. James was a tennis player. He had never played basketball before and he's got a ways to go and he will continue to work at it and continue to get better," Huggins said. "I think by the time we roll around to conference play and maybe the conference tournament we'll have three guys as good as anybody."
 
Jordan "Jelly" Walker, who came into tonight's game leading the country in scoring with an average of 25.7 points per game, was good as advertised, the senior scoring 19 points and handing out seven assists. But Kedrian Johnson, as he did last year in Birmingham, stuck to Walker like glue and forced him to miss 11 of his 17 field goal attempts and turn the ball over seven times.
 
"Walker is a heck of a player and I was talking (to UAB coach Andy Kennedy) last night and he said he's going to have a heck of a year. I said, 'Yeah I know, as long as he doesn't have to play Keedy more than once,'" Huggins said. "Keedy was terrific on the ball."
 
Johnson, whose mother Yolanda Curley was here watching her son play in person at the Coliseum for the first time in his career, came up one point shy of his career high with 17 points.
 
He made 5-of-10 from the floor and knocked down all seven of his free throw attempts to go with a pair of rebounds, an assist and a steal.
 
Backcourt mate Joe Toussaint also gave WVU terrific minutes off the bench with 14 points, three steals, a rebound, an assist and a block in 25 minutes.
 
Matthews Jr., who landed awkwardly on his knee in the opening minute of the game and left the floor, returned a few minutes later and finished the game with 16 points and nine rebounds. Tre Mitchell rounded out WVU's double-figure scorers with 13 points while grabbing seven rebounds.
 
West Virginia connected on 27 of its 54 field goal attempts offensively and forced UAB into committing 19 turnovers. Those 19 turnovers led to 25 points.
 
UAB (7-2) shot 47.4% from the floor, out-rebounded WVU 32 to 30 and outscored the Mountaineers' bench 25 to 19.
 
Forward Javian Davis matched Walker for game-high scoring honors with 19. He was 7-of-9 from the floor and 5-of-9 from the free throw line. Forward KJ Buffen contributed 11 for the Blazers.
 
"We've just got to stop doing some dumb things. If we knock out the dumb things we're pretty good," Huggins said.
 
Tonight's victory could end up being very valuable to West Virginia as UAB came into tonight's game No. 50 in the NET rankings.
 
The Mountaineers (8-2) will have a week off for final examinations before resuming their four-game homestand next Sunday against Buffalo. That game will tip off at 5 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.