After having a full week off for finals, West Virginia (7-2) overcame a first half scare in the opening game of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic by defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-7) 84-64. The Mountaineers overcame a first half in which three of their key players, Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant and Deniz Kilicli, spent the majority of the time on the bench leaving the young Mountaineers to do battle with the Islanders. At halftime, the Mountaineers were only up 32-28.
We weren’t sharp,” said West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins. “We weren’t where we were supposed to be.”
Jones had two early fouls which forced him to the bench, came out on fire in the second half scoring the majority of his team-high 22 points. Jones led the 18-5 second half run to put the Mountaineers out of reach for the Islanders. Jones also added eight rebounds in the contest. Bryant and Kilicli also scored in double-digits with 14 and 13 points respectively helping the lead stretch to as much as 20 points.
Despite the win, it was obvious that Huggins wasn’t satisfied with the overall effort of his team.
“When you’re not ready to play you fumble balls. When you’re not ready to play you don’t rebound the ball,” he said. “The ball bounces off your hands. You don’t catch the ball. You don’t make free throws – all the concentration things; you dribble the ball off your foot, which we did numerous times today. When you’re not ready to play or you’re not concentrating, those are the signs.”
The Mountaineers came out in the second half as a different team, something they will have to adjust going forward. The Mountaineers finished the game with 23 assists, led by Bryant and Kevin Noreen with five each. The Mountaineers out-rebounded the Islanders 37-26 and shot 54.5 percent from the floor. The turnovers continue to hurt the Mountaineers as they matched their season average with 15 in the game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The Mountaineers will play Tennessee Tech at the Coliseum on Monday night before heading to Las Vegas to wrap up the classic against Missouri and Baylor. The game will be televised locally on ROOT SPORTS with tipoff scheduled at 7 p.m.
Photo Credit: All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks Photo
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