MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia advances its record to 7-2 tonight with a commanding 79-45 victory over North Carolina Central at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Freshman Jonathan Powell led three double-figure Mountaineer scorers with a season-high 17 points, 12 of those coming from 3-point distance on 4-of-11 shooting.
 
Joseph Yesufu chipped in with a season-high 14, including 11 during a nine-minute stretch in the first half. 
 
Senior guard Javon Small contributed 12.
 
West Virginia was without starting guard Tucker DeVries, sidelined indefinitely with an undisclosed upper body injury. The announcement of DeVries' injury was made before tonight's game.
 
"I wasn't sure what to expect and we had two days to prepare a few different lineups, and a lot of guys were in different spots tonight," West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said. "Then, you play a team that switches defenses almost every possession throwing everything at you, so having some organization for every single defense was a little bit of a challenge."
 
Eduardo Andre got the starting nod in place of DeVries and scored 3 points with eight rebounds. Freshman K.J. Tenner began the second half for Andre and tallied 9 for the contest.
 
"I liked the fact that K.J. was getting into the paint and we needed that," DeVries explained. "It was just a matchup thing. Like I told Eduardo, it had nothing to do with his performance by any means, we just needed four perimeter guys out there to help break the press and also to just match up better on the defensive end for what they were running."
 
Amani Hansberry pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to help give the Mountaineers a 45 to 28 advantage on the glass.
 
All 10 West Virginia players who got into the game scored, including 9 from senior guard Jake Auer in just four minutes of court time.
 
WVU got 51 points from its bench and had a 19 to 7 advantage in points off turnovers.
 
"What I did like is we got 21 assists on 28 (field goals) and that says something about the way the guys played tonight. They really shared it, really moved it and made that extra pass," DeVries said.
 
Defensive-oriented North Carolina Central of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, making its first-ever Coliseum appearance, made just 16 of its 48 field goal attempts for 33.3%.
 
Isaac Parson was the only Eagle to reach double figures with 16 points. Leading scorer Po'Boigh King, averaging 17.4 points per game, was 0 for 7 from the floor and finished with 5 points.

An announced crowd of 8,711 watched tonight's game.
 
West Virginia continues its four-game homestand on Saturday against Bethune-Cookman of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. That game will tip off at 5 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN+.
 
Tickets are available through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.