Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used a career-high 19 points from guard
Kobe Johnson and 19 from forward
Quinn Slazinski to down Jacksonville State, 70-57, Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
Coming on the heels of the Mountaineers' eight-points loss to Monmouth last Friday night, West Virginia shot the basketball much better tonight and did a solid job defensively against the Gamecocks' backcourt.
WVU's 2-3 zone defense really helped, and it also aided the Mountaineers offensively by preserving their legs. West Virginia shot 14 of 26 from the floor in the first half and used a 14-3 run to end the half with a 40-27 lead.
"The zone was really good," West Virginia coach
Josh Eilert said afterward. "They made some shots early but we stuck with it and it paid off."
WVU's lead swelled to 19 points with 13:17 left before Jacksonville State went on a 10-0 run to reduce the margin to eight, 61-53, with 3:56 remaining.
That was the closest the Gamecocks could get.
"I told everyone in the locker room that was a buy-in game," Eilert said. "Everybody bought in, and we had to turn the page and get that bad taste out of our mouth. Nothing in what we do is going to be easy with a short-handed roster so we've got to execute our game plan to a tee."
Center
Jesse Edwards added 14 points and forward
Josiah Harris contributed a career-high 12 on 4-of-7 shooting.
Johnson's stat line was 7-of-17 from the floor, 4-of-4 from the free throw line, grabbed six defensive rebounds and five assists in 34 minutes of action from the point guard position.
"He was really solid," Eilert said. "He was 7-of-17 from the floor and probably three of those were forced to get up, so he's probably about 7-of-14 when you look at it from a realistic standpoint."
Slazinski was also very effective with 6-of-10 from the floor, 3-of-5 from behind the arc, a team-high seven rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes of work.
"I never would have thought Jesse would only have six field goals and Kobe would have 17 field goal attempts, but I'll take a win however we can get it," Eilert said.
Eilert tweaked his starting lineup tonight with freshman
Ofri Naveh joining Johnson in the backcourt instead of
Seth Wilson, who came off the bench to hand out a pair of assists in 23 minutes of action.
Overall, West Virginia shot 51.1%, hitting 23 of 45, including 42.1% from 3-point distance on 8 of 19. The Mountaineers outscored the Gamecocks 26 to 12 in the paint and 17 to 12 off turnovers. WVU had a 38 to 34 edge on the glass but left 9 points on the free throw line, connecting on only 16 of 25 for 64%.
"After watching the Monmouth tape, we were so gassed on the offensive end with the short roster from chasing everybody on the defensive end," Eilert explained. "When we came down on the offensive end, we had legs under our shots."
Former Xavier transfer KyKy Tandy led Jacksonville State with 18 points on 7 of 18 shooting. Quincy Clark contributed 13 for the Gamecocks, which drop to 1-2 on the season.
West Virginia returns to action next Monday night in Ft. Myers, Florida, when it faces SMU in the opening game of the Ft. Myers Tip-Off at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. The game will be televised nationally on FS1.
