MORGANTOWN — What Seth Wilson began in the first half was carried over by both Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Tre Mitchell in the second half, as West Virginia pounded Mount St. Mary’s 76-58 on Monday in the Coliseum.
Matthews turned in an all-around game with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Mitchell added 13 points off the bench.
“He’s a hooper,” Matthews said of Mitchell. “He’s not a regular basketball player. He’s a hooper. I think the one thing about him is you could put him anywhere on the floor. He can really shoot the ball. He was all over the place.”
If this first game was supposed to provide a fresh beginning after a dismal 2021-22 season, someone forgot to tell that to WVU (1-0) early on.
While the Mountaineers did win their fourth consecutive season opener, it didn’t come quite as easily as the final score indicated.
WVU found itself in a deadlocked 10-10 game midway through the first half that was high on defensive energy, but otherwise difficult to watch sometimes.
“I didn’t think we played very well,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We didn’t make rotations. We didn’t guard the ball as well as we need to guard the ball. We didn’t rebound it the way we needed to and we turned it over 18 times.”
At one point, WVU had the same amount of turnovers as points — four for both — while struggling to get any good looks at the basket.
That all began to change once Wilson came into the game, hitting his first shot from the corner while leaning away from the rim on one foot.
He added another shot from the other corner off an inbounds play and then saw a 3-point attempt fall dead off the back of the rim and bounce through.
By the time he played his first 12 minutes of the season, Wilson had already tied his career high with seven points.
He didn’t attempt a shot in the second half, but didn’t need to, as Mitchell and Matthews took over.
The fact Mitchell played at all was news.
The 6-foot-9 transfer from Texas had battled through a foot injury in the preseason and hadn’t been cleared to participate in a full practice until Sunday.
“This preseason has been a journey to say the least,” Mitchell said. “The injury came out of left field. As far as me coming back, it was a game-time thing. I’ve really been taking things day by day.”
His first shot came off a pick-and-pop and Mitchell buried a three from the wing for his first WVU points.
Mitchell is one of nine new players on the WVU roster — it will soon be 10 when Manhattan transfer Jose Perez enrolls and begins to practice with the team. Perez was not seen at the Coliseum and the school has yet to announce his enrollment.
Other than that, WVU simply out-muscled Mount St. Mary’s for the majority of the game.
WVU finished with a commanding 45-28 rebounding advantage and had a 32-10 edge in points in the paint.
Both were big improvements from last season, when WVU finished last in Big 12 play during the regular season and went through two different seven-game losing streaks.
“When you see a loose ball or rebound, you do whatever it takes to get to the ball,” Matthews said. “We play hard here. Those things count.”
WVU did struggle to shoot the ball from beyond the arc, finishing 6 of 20 (30%) from 3-point range, but did connect on 28 of 57 (49.1%) from the floor. Meanwhile, Mount St. Mary’s was held to just 32.7% (18 of 55) shooting.
Erik Stevenson chipped in 10 points for WVU and Mohamed Wague added nine points and nine rebounds.
Mount St. Mary’s was led by Jalen Benjamin’s 18 points.
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