WVU Concludes Nonconference Portion of its Schedule Victorious

MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – West Virginia concludes its four-game homestand with a 67-46 victory over Mercyhurst Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Javon Small scored a game-high 19 points, including the 1,000^th point of his collegiate career. Small has played two seasons at East Carolina, one at Oklahoma State and now this year at WVU.
 
Eduardo Andre came off the bench to score a season-high 14 points while Toby Okani got his first double-double of the season with 13 points and a season-high 12 rebounds.
 
West Virginia, now 9-2 and equaling its win total from last season, limited the Lakers of the Northeast Conference to just 28.3% shooting for the game. Mercyhurst missed 38 of its 53 field goal attempts and turned the ball over 16 times.
 
“Like I told the guys, the nonconference portion is now over, and they did their job in terms of putting themselves in position and now they get ready for Big 12 play,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said. “Overall, this game was a little ugly at times, but I thought defensively in the second half we got it cranked up and get out into transition a little bit more to pull away.”
 
After WVU led 35-22 at halftime, the Lakers went on an 8-0 run to reduced the Mountaineers’ lead to eight, 38-30, with 14:46 left. Small finally snapped its nearly six-minute field goal drought with a layup, two of 16 straight points West Virginia scored to build its lead up to 24 points.
 
West Virginia again played today’s game without starting guard Tucker DeVries, who has been sidelined since the Georgetown victory with an undisclosed upper body injury.
 
Starting center Amani Hansberry also checked out 18 seconds into the game with what appeared to be an ankle injury. He spent the game sitting on the bench with an ice bag on his foot, but DeVries indicated afterward it was nothing serious.
 
With Hansberry out, Harris Elezovich got some extended playing time and finished with four points, five rebounds and an assist in 15 minutes.
 
“(Hansberry’s injury) took away a little bit of our depth and our ability to throw it inside,” DeVries explained. “But I thought Harris came in and gave us some really good minutes and Eduardo took an extended role, so that was good.”
 
Freshman Jonathan Powell, getting his second start in DeVries’ place, made two 3s and finished the game with six points.
 
The Mountaineers outscored the Lakers 30 to 16 in the paint and had a 29 to 19 edge in bench scoring.
 
“When you are kind of struggling a little bit offensively you need to have defense so you can hang around, and then when you get the chance to break it open you can do that,” DeVries said.
 
West Virginia will now hit the pause button on basketball activities for Christmas break before reassembling to begin Big 12 play at eighth-ranked Kansas on New Year’s eve afternoon in Lawrence.
 
That game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.