Mountain State Times

Strong Second Half Lifts West Virginia on Bob Huggins Hall of Fame Day

 West Virginia got a season-high 22 points from Erik Stevenson and an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double from Jimmy Bell Jr. to out-gun Buffalo 96-78 at the WVU Coliseum Sunday evening.
 
The 96 points were a season-high for the Mountaineers, which came into tonight's game averaging 80.5 points per game and shooting 49.7% as a team.
 
On Bob Huggins Hall of Fame Day, his players treated their coach to his 925th career victory by outscoring the Bulls 35-18 over the remaining 11:40, turning tonight's game into another blowout triumph for the Mountaineers, now 9-2 on the season.
 
Buffalo trimmed West Virginia's lead to one, 61-60, on Yazid Powell's jumper, but Jonnivius Smith fouled Tre Mitchell in the act of shooting and also drew a technical foul complaining about the call.
 
That sent Mitchell to the foul line for four free throws, all of which he made, and then Mitchell tacked on a pair of baskets to boost WVU's lead to nine.
 
The margin got to 15 on Bell Jr.'s three-point play before Bell added a baseline dunk, a layup, a pair of free throws and another three-point play to grow WVU's lead to 21. 

The Saginaw, Michigan, resident's career-high 18 points came on 5-of-6 from the floor and 8-of-13 from the free throw line. Four of his game-high 10 rebounds came on the offensive glass.
 
"Jimmy is getting better and better," Huggins said. "He's a load down there."
 
Stevenson got 16 of his game-high 22 in the first half, and West Virginia needed all of it as the Mountaineers struggled to slow down Buffalo's dribble drives to the basket. The Bulls outscored West Virginia 24 to 12 in the paint and shot 55% in the first half.
 
Reserve forward Isaac Jack got all of his season-high 13 points while Isaiah Adams contributed 11 in the first half. Adams added 9 after the break to lead the Bulls with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
 
"We didn't guard the ball screen at all," Huggins said of his team's first-half defensive difficulties. "We never guarded the roll guy." 
 
Huggins said going to its point-drop defense in the second half eventually cooled down Buffalo, the Bulls connecting on just 14-of-34 from the floor after intermission.
 
"They're a so-called mid-major but that's a good basketball team," he said of the visiting Bulls. "That's a team that's going to make a lot of noise."
 
Buffalo (5-6) had no answer for WVU's two bigs Bell and Mitchell, who added 17 points and six rebounds. Jack and Smith fouled out and Powell and Armoni Foster ended the game with four fouls.
 
Fouls played a big role in tonight's contest with Buffalo more than doubling up West Virginia 27 to 13, which led to WVU making 14 more free throws than the Bulls.
 
The Mountaineers had a 41 to 30 advantage on the glass and an 18 to 4 edge in second-chance scoring. WVU shot 51.6% from the floor, the third straight game it has connected at better than 50% and the sixth time this season.
 
Seth Wilson came off the bench to tally 10, including a big 3 in a second-half exchange with Curtis Jones when Buffalo was trying to make a run.
 
West Virginia led 47-39 at halftime.
 
Kobe Johnson got the start tonight in place of senior Emmitt Matthews Jr., who was sitting on the bench dressed in street clothes after injuring his left knee during last Saturday's win against UAB. Matthews told MSN play-by-play man Tony Caridi that his plan is to sit out Thursday night's game against Stony Brook and be ready for the Big 12 opener at Kansas State on Saturday, Dec. 31.
 
An announced crowd of 10,689 watched tonight's game. Among those was new WVU director of athletics Wren Baker, taking in his first men's basketball action at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Tickets are on sale for the final home game before Christmas on Thursday night against a Stony Brook team coming off a 66-59 win over Army earlier today.
 
Tickets are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com. 
  

Original source can be found here