WVU Faces Mercer Thursday Night to Conclude Three-Game Homestand

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia concludes its three-game homestand on Thursday night against Mercer at Hope Coliseum.

The Mountaineers improved to 2-0 with an impressive 91-53 victory over Stetson last Friday night. Freshman guard Miles Sadler's game-high 25 points came within four of WVU's freshman record of 29 established by forward Warren Baker in 1974 and duplicated by guard Aundrae Davis in 1985.

Sadler just missed a double-double in his college debut against Niagara with 16 points and nine assists.

Junior guard Joson Sanon has contributed 27 points coming off the bench, including 18 on six 3s against Stetson, while senior guard Finley Bizjack has added 24.

West Virginia has used a starting lineup consisting of Sadler and Bizjack in the backcourt, with senior returner Brenen Lorient, Utah transfer Seydou Traore and Georgia Tech transfer Mouhamed Sylla in the front court.

All players dressed and available for both early season games have seen action.

Mercer, meanwhile, is coming off a 97-71 overtime victory at Georgia Southern on Tuesday night.

Quinton Perkins II, a 6-foot-2 senior guard from Dallas, Texas, is averaging 16.3 points in Mercer's four games so far this year, two of them wins over Reinhardt and Georgia Southern with losses to Virginia Tech and Davidson.

"They've got really good guards that can space you," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said. "They do a good job of creating some gaps to flatten your defense out and let those guys play."

Ohio Dominican import Derek Goodman (12.5 ppg.); Wichita State transfer Karon Boyd and Tallahassee State addition Shane Cherry (11.5 ppg.); and former Indian Hills Community College standout KJ Lamonte (11.0 ppg.) are also averaging double figures for coach Ryan Ridder, now in his third season at Mercer.

Last year, Ridder guided Mercer to a 19-13 overall record and second place regular season finish in the Southern Conference.

"When you have good, experienced guards who can control the tempo of a game and have the ability to get a shot when they want it, you can get so fixated watching them dribble the ball and attack the paint that you can forget to go rebound the basketball," Hodge cautioned.

West Virginia currently owns the nation's second longest active winning streak of five games and if the streak can remain intact after Thursday night, it will meet Auburn, owner of the nation's longest active winning streak of seven, out in Las Vegas next week in the Players Era 8 Tournament.

Thursday night's game against Mercer will tip off at 7 p.m. with live television coverage provided by ESPN+ (Nick Farrell, Nathan Adrian and Amanda Mazey).

Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and David Kahn will get things started at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.

Tickets remain on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.

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Players Mentioned

Finley Bizjack

Brenen Lorient

Miles Sadler

Joson Sanon

Mouhamed Sylla

Seydou Traore

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