West Virginia Wins Opener Against Mount St. Mary’s

Tuesday, November 4

Morgantown, W.Va.

7 p.m.

West Virginia University

1-0,0-0Big 12

Mount St. Mary's

0-1,0-0MAAC

Mount St. Mary's

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

November 04, 2025 09:48 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used a career-high-tying 25 points from Jasper Floyd to defeat Mount St. Mary's 70-54 in Ross Hodge's coaching debut Tuesday night at Hope Coliseum.

Floyd, who once tallied 25 points against Yale when he played at Fairfield, made 9 of 13 from the floor, 6 of 9 from the free throw line and handed out four assists.

Honor Huff contributed 16 points, seven of those coming from the free throw line and all three field goals coming from behind the 3-point arc, while Brenen Lorient chipped in with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Lorient's work on the glass was significant because the Mountaineers were getting doubled up on the backboards for most of the game.

"I thought B-Lo kind of started imposing himself on the backboard and went and got some of those," Hodge observed. "The separation we got offensively was him kind of being the hub in the post and they chose to double, and we were able to get it out."

The Mount's final rebounding advantage was nine, 38 to 29, although Hodge thought some of that margin is a little bit misleading.

"We forced 20 turnovers, so they had more defensive rebounding opportunities than we did," he explained. "When you look at it analytically, it will be interesting to see what the actual percentage of rebounds were, which is probably a more accurate way of measuring the rebounding totals. Also, when you are missing free throws, it's a pretty good chance they are going to rebound the ball."

West Virginia's real advantage came at the free throw line where the Mount's 25 fouls resulted in 35 free throw attempts, the Mountaineers converting 23.

WVU produced 13 steals leading to those 20 Mount St. Mary's turnovers and 19 fastbreak points.

"I thought our defensive activity was probably the difference in the game," Hodge said. "We turned them over 20 times, and we only turned it over nine."

West Virginia finished 21 of 48 from the floor for 43.8% and 5 of 18 from beyond the arc for 27.8%.

"We were trying to settle in offensively and it was the first time out for a lot of these guys, and you can tell there was a little bit of squeeze and I've got to do a better job of alleviating some of that with them and try and get them some easy baskets," Hodge said.

The Mount, which connected on just 39.1% of their 46 field goal attempts, got a team-high 15 points from Trey Deveaux. No other player reached double figures.

West Virginia led 35-29 at halftime and its largest lead came at the end of the game.

"We had not been great in the closed scrimmage or the exhibition coming out at halftime, and I thought we had that little push just enough to keep them at arm's bay for the most part," Hodge said.

The Mountaineers were without senior guard Chance Moore, sitting out the first five games to satisfy NCAA transfer requirements, and senior forward Jackson Fields, who is still recovering from a preseason hand injury.

Tonight's game was the Mount's seventh appearance at the Coliseum, all losses.

West Virginia (1-0) has a quick turnaround with a Thursday night game looming against Campbell (0-1).

The Fighting Camels lost 96-64 to 24^th-ranked Wisconsin on Monday night.