Saturday, December 9
Morgantown, W.Va.
4 p.m.
West Virginia University
4-5,0-0Big 12
66
vs
60
Drexel
5-5,0-0CAA
1
2
F
Drexel
33
27
60
West Virginia
31
35
66
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Strong Second Half Lifts WVU Over Drexel
December 09, 2023 06:34 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used a 17-9 run to begin the second half to down Drexel 66-60 in late Saturday afternoon basketball action at the WVU Coliseum.
Center Jesse Edwards led a balanced Mountaineer scoring attack with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including a critical breakaway dunk with 37 seconds left after Drexel had reduced West Virginia's lead to four.
"It was a good win for us," West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said.
The Dragons (5-5), which led by as many as nine points early, never trailed in the first half and took a 33-31 advantage into the locker room at intermission. Drexel shot 51.9% in the first half but in the second half it was a completely different story. The Dragons made just 12 of its 35 second-half field goal attempts, including five misses in a row during a critical six-minute stretch late in the second half.
The game turned in West Virginia's favor with 9:20 remaining on Seth Wilson's driving layup, which began an 8-2 Mountaineer run. WVU's biggest lead was eight, 62-54, with 4:14 to go, but the Mountaineers were unable to expand their lead to double digits despite having several opportunities to do so.
West Virginia (4-5) came into today's game struggling mightily in the second half, the Mountaineers being outscored by an averaging of 6.4 points per game, but WVU was eight points better than Drexel tonight.
"We haven't been the greatest second half team, and we have our challenges with numbers and conditioning with all of those guys playing high minutes, but I told them to push the pace and get up in them and take some things away," Eilert said. "Maybe they had a different mindset."
Akok Akok, who returned to action on Wednesday night after being sidelined for the first seven games of the season after suffering a medical emergency in the George Mason exhibition game, contributed five key points in succession early in the second half to help West Virginia get its lead and get the crowd into the game.
Guard Seth Wilson, who was mired in a 4-for-23 shooting slump over his last three games, got his first two 3-pointers to go down and finished with 11. Wilson and Akok keyed a West Virginia bench that outscored Drexel's 19-14.
"Akok was able to give us more minutes and that's going to increase as he gets in better shape," Eilert said. "He was plus-15 in the 12 minutes he was out there and he made a couple of shots and it was a team effort in so many ways."
The other telling stat today was points off turnovers - the Mountaineers leading that category 22 to 10.
Forward Quinn Slazinski contributed 14 points, despite an off night shooting the basketball. WVU's leading scorer, averaging 17.4 points per game, could only get 6 of his 15 field goal attempts to go down today.
Overall, West Virginia made 28 of 58 for 48.3%, including a much-improved 7-of-17 from 3-point distance. The game's big 3 came from freshman Ofri Naveh with 5:19 remaining to give WVU a 60-54 lead.
Drexel was led by guard Justin Moore's game-high 20 points. Forward Amari Williams added 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds in his head-to-head matchup against Edwards.
"Justin Moore got 20, but we kind of invited him to shoot those," Eilert said. "We were going under all of those ball screens so that was part of the game plan."
Today's victory ends West Virginia's losing streak at two and the Mountaineers finish up the four-game homestand 2-2.
"I thought we played with a little more joy today," Eilert said. "There is a lot of pressure behind everything, but you've just got to love the game and come out here and enjoy playing together. That's kind of the difference."
Drexel was making its first appearance in Morgantown since 1980.
WVU will now have the services of guard Kerr Kriisa for its next game against Massachusetts on Saturday, Dec. 16, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Kriisa served a nine-game suspension after admitting to accepting impermissible benefits while playing at Arizona.
"We needed something to build on and now we've got Kerr coming back to join us and give us some more depth at the guards. That's going to be extremely helpful," Eilert concluded.
The addition of Kriisa will give West Virginia 11 available players.
Center Jesse Edwards led a balanced Mountaineer scoring attack with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including a critical breakaway dunk with 37 seconds left after Drexel had reduced West Virginia's lead to four.
"It was a good win for us," West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said.
The Dragons (5-5), which led by as many as nine points early, never trailed in the first half and took a 33-31 advantage into the locker room at intermission. Drexel shot 51.9% in the first half but in the second half it was a completely different story. The Dragons made just 12 of its 35 second-half field goal attempts, including five misses in a row during a critical six-minute stretch late in the second half.
The game turned in West Virginia's favor with 9:20 remaining on Seth Wilson's driving layup, which began an 8-2 Mountaineer run. WVU's biggest lead was eight, 62-54, with 4:14 to go, but the Mountaineers were unable to expand their lead to double digits despite having several opportunities to do so.
West Virginia (4-5) came into today's game struggling mightily in the second half, the Mountaineers being outscored by an averaging of 6.4 points per game, but WVU was eight points better than Drexel tonight.
"We haven't been the greatest second half team, and we have our challenges with numbers and conditioning with all of those guys playing high minutes, but I told them to push the pace and get up in them and take some things away," Eilert said. "Maybe they had a different mindset."
Akok Akok, who returned to action on Wednesday night after being sidelined for the first seven games of the season after suffering a medical emergency in the George Mason exhibition game, contributed five key points in succession early in the second half to help West Virginia get its lead and get the crowd into the game.
Guard Seth Wilson, who was mired in a 4-for-23 shooting slump over his last three games, got his first two 3-pointers to go down and finished with 11. Wilson and Akok keyed a West Virginia bench that outscored Drexel's 19-14.
"Akok was able to give us more minutes and that's going to increase as he gets in better shape," Eilert said. "He was plus-15 in the 12 minutes he was out there and he made a couple of shots and it was a team effort in so many ways."
The other telling stat today was points off turnovers - the Mountaineers leading that category 22 to 10.
Forward Quinn Slazinski contributed 14 points, despite an off night shooting the basketball. WVU's leading scorer, averaging 17.4 points per game, could only get 6 of his 15 field goal attempts to go down today.
Overall, West Virginia made 28 of 58 for 48.3%, including a much-improved 7-of-17 from 3-point distance. The game's big 3 came from freshman Ofri Naveh with 5:19 remaining to give WVU a 60-54 lead.
Drexel was led by guard Justin Moore's game-high 20 points. Forward Amari Williams added 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds in his head-to-head matchup against Edwards.
"Justin Moore got 20, but we kind of invited him to shoot those," Eilert said. "We were going under all of those ball screens so that was part of the game plan."
Today's victory ends West Virginia's losing streak at two and the Mountaineers finish up the four-game homestand 2-2.
"I thought we played with a little more joy today," Eilert said. "There is a lot of pressure behind everything, but you've just got to love the game and come out here and enjoy playing together. That's kind of the difference."
Drexel was making its first appearance in Morgantown since 1980.
WVU will now have the services of guard Kerr Kriisa for its next game against Massachusetts on Saturday, Dec. 16, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Kriisa served a nine-game suspension after admitting to accepting impermissible benefits while playing at Arizona.
"We needed something to build on and now we've got Kerr coming back to join us and give us some more depth at the guards. That's going to be extremely helpful," Eilert concluded.
The addition of Kriisa will give West Virginia 11 available players.
Team Stats
Drexel
WVU
FG%
.419
.483
3FG%
.227
.412
FT%
.750
.600
RB
38
31
TO
17
12
STL
6
6
Game Leaders
Pts
16
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
14
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
1
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
8
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
C
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
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