West Virginia Wins Opener
Da'Sean Butler scored a game-high 26 points Sunday against Loyola.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Da’Sean Butler scored 26 points to lead No. 8 West Virginia to an 83-60 victory over Loyola, Md., Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
Butler’s 15 second-half points and some energetic play by freshman Danny Jennings jumpstarted a sluggish West Virginia team playing without forward Devin Ebanks, who was not on the bench for the game.
“He’s got some personal issues to work through,” said Huggins of Ebanks. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
Jennings nearly had a double-double in his first college game, scoring 9 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in 16 minutes of action off the bench.
“Danny changed a bunch of shots,” said Huggins. “He got a couple but he changed a whole bunch of shots when they took it to the basket.”
Jennings' 12 rebounds were the most ever by a Mountaineer freshman playing in his first game. Six others in WVU history have pulled down at least 12 rebounds in their first game but not as a freshman (the last to do it was junior college transfer Carey Bailey against East Carolina on Nov. 30, 1968).
Huggins used 11 different players in search of some defensive stops and offensive rhythm. At one point, Loyola was shooting better than 70 percent from the floor and had a 20-13 lead after a Shane Walker dunk with 9:56 left in the first half.
At halftime, West Virginia’s numbers were not very impressive: 32.4 percent field goal percentage including 2 of 17 from 3, 22-14 disadvantage in the paint and a 16-6 deficit in bench scoring that led to a 31-31 score.
But the Mountaineers scored the first 11 points of the second half on back-to-back 3s by Truck Bryant and Wellington Smith, a short jumper by Butler and another 3 by Bryant.
The closest Loyola could get was six on a Julius Brooks dunk.
via MSNsportsNET.Com
