MORGANTOWN — Taz Sherman scored 18 points and West Virginia pulled away in the second half to beat Bellarmine 74-55 on Tuesday night.
Sherman sank 7 of 12 shots from the floor for the Mountaineers (6-1), who improved to 4-0 at home. Sean McNeil hit two 3-pointers and scored 14. Jalen Bridges had nine rebounds as West Virginia won the battle of the boards 41-31.
The Mountaineers, who led 37-30 at halftime, got a 3-pointer from McNeil to cap a 6-0 run to open the second half that pushed their lead to double digits 43-30 with 17:19 left to play. The Knights, who have played the toughest schedule to date with road losses to top-five teams Gonzaga, Purdue and UCLA, never got closer than 12 after that.
Dylan Penn paced Bellarmine with 16 points and five assists. Curt Hopf had 12 points and eight rebounds, while Juston Betz scored 10 with seven boards. CJ Fleming scored 10 but hit just 3 of 10 shots.
West Virginia shot 47.7% from the floor and 36.8% from distance (7 of 19) but hit only half of its 10 foul shots. Bellarmine shot 40.4% overall but made just 2 of 17 from beyond the arc and 7 of 14 free throws in the first meeting between the schools.
