MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This one was over from the moment Wofford walked into the Coliseum. West Virginia’s smothering pressure defense led to an early 18-2 lead and an easy 77-44 victory Monday night for the 18th-ranked Mountaineers.
West Virginia, coming off a 14-point victory over NC State two nights ago in New York City, was expecting a much more difficult game considering Wofford’s 9-2 record that included a 55-54 win over the Wolfpack eight days ago.
Plus, the Terriers were well rested and had five days to prepare for West Virginia’s full-court press.
It didn’t matter.
Wofford had five points at the nine-minute mark and finished the first half with just 20 and a 22-point deficit. Things got worse in the second half, Wofford shooting just 24 percent and seeing West Virginia’s lead swell to as many as 40. By that time Wofford coach Mike Young had waved the white flag with most of his starters sitting on the bench.
“We did a pretty good job of keeping them out of offense,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “That’s a good basketball team. People would say come on, but they’re a good basketball team if you let them do what they’re good at doing but we didn’t let them do what they are good at doing.”
West Virginia (11-1) nearly shot 50 percent for the second straight game, finishing the game converting 49 percent with several misses coming late in the game with the backups on the floor.
Juwan Staten led everyone with 17 points and added 10 rebounds – his fourth career double-double.
Elijah Macon came off the bench to score a season-high 11 points, while Jonathan Holton contributed 11 and Jevon Carter added 10.
“Elijah is starting to get better,” said Huggins. “Here is a guy who didn’t practice last year. He was in school and he just gets better and better. He’s bouncier than what you think he is and I think you saw that a couple of times tonight where he made some big plays at the defensive end that started transition for us.”
West Virginia made 12 steals and forced 21 Wofford turnovers that led to 27 points. The Mountaineers also had got 34 points from their bench and outscored Wofford 32-6 in the paint.
Nine different players scored for West Virginia.
“I thought we played really hard,” said Huggins. “I walked down to do the handshake and coach (Young) said, ‘Man you guys are really good.’ We’re really good when we can make people not do what they want to do.”
Spencer Collins led Wofford with 12 points. Karl Cochran added 10.
An announced crowd of 7,897 watched tonight’s game.
Before the game, West Virginia honored Staten for scoring his 1,000th career point against NC State and also Huggins for winning his 750th career game against the Wolfpack.
West Virginia is idle for the next eight days before facing Virginia Tech at the Coliseum on Tuesday, December 30 in the final non-conference game of the year. That game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
