6:00: Morning News

Mountaineers leave Las Vegas in style by routing San Diego State

Daxter Miles scored 14 points to lead five players in double figures and West Virginia’s press harassed San Diego State into 21 turnovers, lifting the Mountaineers to a 72-50 blowout in Friday night’s championship game of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Jonathan Holton and Jevon Carter scored 12 points each for West Virginia (6-0), which outrebounded the Aztecs 42-28 and finished with a 30-7 edge in points off turnovers.

Miles made six steals and scored on a second-half putback dunk when West Virginia led by double digits for the final 18 minutes.

“To be honest I wasn’t real happy with Dax yesterday (in a win over Richmond), but I thought he was really good today,” said coach Bob Huggins, whose team likely will emerge in the AP Top 25 next week.

Jeremy Hensley’s 14 points led San Diego State (4-3), which reached the title game by rallying from 15 points down to upset No.14 Cal on Thursday. But 0-of-9 shooting from 3-point range—and the program’s most turnovers since November 2011—prevented duplicate comebacks at Orleans Arena.

Skylar Spencer blocked seven shots in a losing effort for Steve Fisher’s team, which has dominated the Mountain West in recent years and was picked second in the conference this season.

“That’s as athletic a team as we’re probably going to see,” Huggins said.

Jaysean Paige hit two early 3-pointers to spark West Virginia’s 15-0 run. The senior guard battled foul trouble to finish with 10 points, as did Devin Williams, who was shutout in the first half.

“Dev just held the ball too long, and we told him they were going to double because Fish has doubled the post ever since he was at Michigan,” Huggins said. “We’ve just got to catch it and make our move quicker.”

Williams made better decisions after intermission, closing with four assists and a game-high nine rebounds that left him just shy of a sixth consecutive double-double. He claimed MVP honors and was joined by Miles and Carter on the all-tournament team.

Joining Iowa State and Oklahoma as the lone undefeated teams in the Big 12, West Virginia won the event despite making only 6-of-26 from 3-point range over two nights.