MORGANTOWN — There was some grit and grime, maybe even some downright toughness that came with West Virginia’s 73-57 charity exhibition win against Bowling Green on Friday night inside the Coliseum.
It wasn’t always pretty, but then again …
“This isn’t a pretty program,” said WVU guard Erik Stevenson, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. “This program has never been pretty. Even when they beat Kentucky in the (NCAA) tourney (in 2010) with all of those draft picks, that game wasn’t pretty.”
Defense and rebounding the ball were on display again for the Mountaineers, even if it was against a team from the Mid-American Conference.
That mattered little on this night, especially for a group trying to rekindle a spark into a program that finished last in the Big 12 last season.
“When you look at it and look at our schedule, there’s going to be some dogfights,” said WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., who added 14 points and six rebounds. “The one thing about being here is you don’t sign up to play like you’re at Golden State.
“We get a lot of guys here, as the young guys say, ‘We got them out of the mud.’ Us going through the mud and going through adversity, that’s nothing.”
Let’s just throw a stat out there: WVU had 55 rebounds.
“That just means we missed a lot of shots,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said, maybe not joking.
The Mountaineers went through many dry spells a season ago, yet never came away with 55 rebounds and certainly not 23 offensive rebounds like they did against the Falcons.
In fact, no WVU team since 2017 has had that many boards in a game.
Stevenson had 10 — much to his surprise, and Matthews joked the stat keepers stole some from him — and junior-college transfer Mohamed Wague added nine more, including six offensive rebounds.
Sophomore James Okonkwo had seven rebounds and three blocked shots. WVU recorded 10 steals and forced 20 turnovers through a never-ending face-to-face defense.
It was a WVU team looking to do the little things, while never backing down.
That showed when senior point guard Kedrian Johnson got whistled for a technical foul early in the second half after shoving the ball into the belly of Bowling Green forward Gabe O’Neal after getting bumped hard while driving to the rim.
“Kedy had his little thing tonight, but I don’t mind that,” Stevenson said. “I don’t want anybody on this team taking anything from nobody. We’re not pretty on the court. We play hard, we compete and we’re going to win.”
The Mountaineers, who open the regular season at home on Nov. 7, never trailed, but it wasn’t all good news.
WVU shot just 4 of 19 (21%) from 3-point range and 37% from the floor and also turned the ball over 19 times.
The flip side is Bowling Green made just 20 of 65 shots (31%) and never threatened after getting as close as 40-34 with 17:05 remaining.
“I thought we played in spurts,” Huggins said. “It’s hard when you’re subbing in freshmen in and out of there and you’re trying to get guys some playing time who deserve some playing time.”
Johnson finished with 11 points, but sat on the bench after the technical foul. Joe Toussaint, came off the bench to add seven points and four assists.
Former University High standout Kaden Metheny had a tough night, going 1 of 12 shooting to finish with three points for Bowling Green. The Falcons were led by Samari Curtis’ 17 points.
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