Mountaineers Improve to 3-0 With Thursday Night’s Victory Over Mercer

Thursday, November 12

Morgantown, W.Va.

7 p.m.

West Virginia University

3-0,0-0Big 12

Mercer

2-3,0-0SoCon

Team	1	2	F
Mercer	28	33	61
West Virginia	31	44	75

West Virginia takes on Mercer at Hope Coliseum on Nov. 12, 2026.

West Virginia defeated Mercer, 75-61, on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, at Hope Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va.

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

November 12, 2026 09:42 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Quotes Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used 15 points from Finley Bizjack to down pesky Mercer 75-61 Thursday night at Hope Coliseum.

The Mountaineers overcame a sluggish start to outscore the Bears 44-33 in the second half to improve to 3-0 on the season.

"You've got to give (Mercer) a lot of credit. It was their fifth game in 11 days and played a game on Tuesday, and by and large I thought they were the more physical team for pretty much the whole game," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said afterward. "Maybe there was a 10-minute segment in the second half when we played with the level of physicality necessary, but by and large, they were the more physical and tougher team."

After West Virginia staked out to an early 19-8 lead, Mercer fought its way back into the game and eventually tied the score at 26 on a Quinton Perkins jumper.

After another 28-all tie, Bizjack was able to get a 3 to go down ahead of the buzzer to give the Mountaineers a 31-28 lead at intermission.

Baskets by Miles Sadler, Brenen Lorient, Sadler and Bizjack got the advantage to nine, 39-30, and eventually it swelled to double figures on two Lorient free throws.

West Virginia's biggest lead was 20, 66-46, with 6:03 remaining on Seydou Traore's 3 from the left wing.

West Virginia made half of its 26 second-half field goal attempts to finish the game at 39.7% (23-of-58). The Mountaineers were a cool 7-of-27 from 3-point distance for 25.9% but made up for it by connecting on 22 of their 30 free throw tries.

Sadler chipped in with 12 points and six assists while Javan Buchanan came off the bench to contribute a season-high 12 points, hitting 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.

West Virginia had a 41-34 edge on the glass and got 16 points off Mercer's 14 turnovers.

The Mountaineers, which scored on 51.5% of its offensive possession, were just 10-of-22 on their layup tries tonight.

"Our first-shot defense wasn't bad, but obviously giving up (14) offensive rebounds was just not good enough," Hodge said. "Physicality is two things. Some of it a mindset and an attention to detail, and some of it is a want and willingness to. It's not about size as much as it is playing the game low and who's hitting first usually wins.

"For a good majority of the night, they were that team," Hodge added.

Mercer, now 2-3, got a game-high 20 points off the bench from Shane Cherry.

An announced crowd of 8,680 watched tonight's game.

West Virginia travels out to Las Vegas to face Auburn in the Players Era 8 Tournament next Tuesday night. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and won't get underway until 11:59 ET.