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#21 West Virginia blasts VMI basketball, 103-72

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vmi_logo2The #21 West Virginia Mountaineers forced 36 turnovers en route to a 103-72 win over the VMI Keydets in men’s basketball action Wednesday night at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, W. Va.

The Keydets (2-3) stayed close early and were still within single digits with 2:17 left in the first half, 40-33. West Virginia (6-0) blew the game open with a 13-2 run to close the period, helped by four turnovers during that time, and VMI got no closer than 20 the rest of the way.

In the setback, the Keydets saw QJ Peterson (13) and Craig Hinton (10) finish in double figures. Phillip Anglade added eight points and six rebounds. WVU saw five players score 10 points or more, led by Jevon Carter’s 28-point night that saw him shoot 12 of 14 from the floor.

VMI led Wednesday’s game early, thanks to three early three-pointers. A triple by Jordan Weethee at the 12-minute mark gave the Keydets a 19-16 lead, but West Virginia scored the game’s next eight points and VMI would not lead again.

WVU slowly edged out to a 13-point lead, 40-27, with 3:53 left in the first half, but the Keydets scored the next six points and were back within seven, 40-33 with just over two minutes left in the period. That, unfortunately for the visitors, set the stage for the Mountaineers’ 13-2 half-ending run that blew the margin open.

In fact, WVU’s run stretched to 21-4 over the two halves and gave them a 21-point cushion, 61-37, with 17:28 to play.

The margin hit 30, 81-51, with 12:56 to go and the teams played relatively evenly from that point forward, as both squads emptied their benches.

The Keydets shot the ball fairly well in the loss, going 26 of 58 from the floor (44.8%) and 11 of 31 from long range (35.5%). VMI made nine of its 10 free throws for a 90% success rate, and finished the game with a 44-36 edge in rebounding.

In addition to Carter, Juwan Staton added 17 points and Jonathan Holton (13), Daxter Miles Jr. (12) and Tarik Phillip (12) finished in double figures for the Mountaineers, who shot 42 of 81 from the field (51.9%) and scored 62 points in the paint. WVU made 8 of 18 from three-point range (44.4%), and went just 11 of 22 (50%) from the foul line.

Wednesday’s contest was VMI’s first 30-turnover game since committing 30 miscues against High Point on Jan. 12, 2006. The 36 turnovers were five shy of the most on record for a Keydet hoops team, 41 committed in a 1984 game against Marshall.

VMI basketball will return to action Sunday, taking on the Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Md. Game time is set for 6 p.m. and the game will broadcast on ESPN3.

 

QUOTES – VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom

“It’s hard when you get beat like that to come up with a lot of positives, but I felt we had some with the exception of the turnovers. We played really well. I thought we competed and I think we won the rebounding battle. Coach Huggins has those guys the way he wants them to play.”

“The turning point of the game was late in the first half when we had three live ball turnovers which they converted .They took it from there. It went to a double-digit lead in a hurry.”

“I thought we competed in the second half. It’s hard to dribble through that pressure with guys on you like that.”

“I thought Phillip Anglade played well. We made shots early and we made shots late. There were some positives.”

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