MORGANTOWN — There is a trend developing within the WVU men’s basketball team.
It’s one predicted by head coach Bob Huggins back in September with four simple words: “The ball goes in.”
Now, Huggins has spent many a preseason talking about his players making shots, only to see them sometimes struggle once the season is well underway.
With the additions of players such as Erik Stevenson and Tre Mitchell, a new story is being written. Those two combined for 32 points Friday night on 12 of 16 shooting, as the Mountaineers ran past Penn 92-58 inside the Coliseum.
“We made a conscious effort to recruit some guys who could make shots and we knew Erik Stevenson could make shots,” Huggins said. “Obviously, Tre’s history is he can certainly make shots. (Kedrian Johnson) has really worked on his game and Kedy is very capable of making shots. It’s a matter of those guys putting time in and it’s a matter of those guys continuing to grow.”
WVU (4-0) shot a season-high 55.6% (30 of 54) as a team, and when the Mountaineers wake up today, they’ll find themselves among the Big 12 leaders in seeing the ball go in.
For those interested in stats, WVU is shooting a clean 50.5% on the season and hasn’t shot below 47% in a single game.
“Don’t jinx us,” Stevenson joked.
Only nationally-ranked Texas and Baylor have shot better in the conference.
“It’s a matter of having more guys in the gym,” said Johnson, who finished with 11 points and three assists. “I feel like we’ll be more consistent throughout the year, because we’ve got guys who stay in the gym. I don’t think it’s going to drop off one bit.”
WVU’s hot shooting streak hit a fever pitch midway through the first half against the Quakers (1-4) when four different players all nailed 3-pointers.
First it was Stevenson, who finished with a season-high 21 points, then Joe Toussaint, Mitchell and Emmitt Matthews Jr. all followed suit to give the Mountaineers a commanding 26-9 lead.
“Huggs was getting on us for not getting offensive rebounds,” Stevenson said. “That was sort of a red flag, but when everyone is making shots and you’re shooting 55 percent, it’s hard to go rebound it. I hope that continues. I’m praying that continues.”
Toussaint got going in the second half and added 11 points and every player on the WVU roster scored.
“I thought they made us pay for not really contesting shots,” Penn head coach Steve Donahue said. “They all did a great job. I thought the first half put the game on ice at that point.”
WVU connected on 18 of 26 shots in the first half, including nine 3-pointers.
And then there is the other angle with this WVU team, in that this is an unselfish bunch as you can get.
In Stevenson’s words, there’s a list of seven guys on the Mountaineers’ roster who could go off on a scoring spree in any given game.
When it’s someone else’s turn to lead the way, the rest are glad to take a supporting role.
“It just makes coming to the gym every day enjoyable,” Stevenson said. “I’ve been on four teams, which is crazy to say in college, but I’ve been in programs where I hated to go to the gym. I love playing, but I hate playing the wrong way. I’ve been a part of bad basketball, and I’m glad this is not like that.”
Meanwhile, WVU’s defense held the Quakers to just 21 of 60 shooting and Penn committed 18 turnovers.
Usually, that type of defense would be the story of a WVU victory, but the offense, so far, is taking center stage.
“It’s a big difference, because last year we had only Taz (Sherman) and Sean (McNeil) making shots,” Johnson said. “This year, we’ve got bigs making shots. We’ve got Eric. We’ve got more guys capable of scoring the ball for us.”
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