(Highlights by Teran Malone)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When Navy’s Austin Benigni converted a conventional three-point play with 14:18 remaining in Wednesday’s game at West Virginia, the Midshipmen found themselves trailing 54-49 for their smallest deficit since 8-5.
From that point on, however, it was all Mountaineers, who began to pull away after making three 3-pointers in a span of 1:07 that allowed them to stretch the lead to 67-54 on the way to an 85-64 victory at the WVU Coliseum.
“It was good just to bounce back from Xavier and give us a little bit more confidence,” said forward Tre Mitchell, who scored a team-high 19 points in the win. “At the same time, it goes back to us executing and taking a team we know we’re supposed to beat and putting them away. We were up [almost] 20 in the first half and let it get down to [five] and that’s something we have to eliminate completely. We can’t let them get back in the game and give them confidence.”
The first meeting between the two teams in 50 years came on the 81st anniversary of Pearl Harbor and Military Appreciation Night in Morgantown.
“On a day like this, when so many West Virginians lost their lives in Pearl Harbor, it’s great to get Navy in here to where we can give a lot of gratitude to the people who really gave their lives to us,” Huggins said. “I wish we could’ve brought them all in. That would’ve been terrific, but it’s kind of impossible.”
West Virginia (7-2) executed at a high level offensively against a 2-3 zone defense for much of the matchup and finished shooting 55 percent (32 of 58).
“We prepared for the zone,” Mitchell said. “We knew we were going to see a good bit of it. We have our plays against zone and if we run them, they’re efficient and they work.”
Huggins wasn’t as optimistic regarding what his team displayed offensively against the zone.
“Nobody will know what we were doing,” he said. “That’s for damn sure. Everything we’re supposed to run, we didn’t run. I guess they knew that in the back of their heads and said, ‘Why run the stuff we won’t run against anybody else?’ [Navy coach] Ed DeChellis does a fantastic job and they play really hard. It was good for our guys to play against somebody that plays that hard.”
Navy (5-4) also had its way offensively for much of the outing, including a 15-of-27 shooting performance over the first half.
Still, WVU carried a 48-38 lead into halftime, though the advantage was 36-18 before the Midshipmen outscored the Mountaineers 20-12 over the final 7 minutes of the half.
West Virginia led 54-42 early in the second half after Kedrian Johnson scored from close range. Benigni then went on a personal 7-0 run that featured a pair of jumpers and the conventional three-point play, which was predicated off a drive to the basket and a finish over Erik Stevenson, who was whistled for the foul.
“They’re long and athletic and they change your shots,” DeChellis said. “They’re a good basketball team and obviously well-coached by coach Huggins. I’m proud of our kids. I’m disappointed in the outcome, but I’m proud of the effort and the energy we put into this thing.”
Although WVU scored the next four points, Navy’s Sean Yoder connected on a triple that made it 58-52 with 12:55 left.
A key stretch ensued immediately after that featured a Johnson 3-pointer which upped WVU’s lead to nine. Although Nate Allison scored inside in response, Joe Toussaint canned a triple to stretch the Mountaineers’ advantage to 64-54. Following Yoder’s miss, Mitchell connected from beyond the arc for a 13-point lead with 10:57 to play.
“At some point in time, we had to get a stop and get it turned,” Huggins said. “That just happened to be the time.”
Navy never got the deficit inside 11 the rest of the way, and a triple from freshman Josiah Harris ignited a 7-0 spurt that allowed the Mountaineers to lead 74-56 following Harris’ two free throws at the 7:28 mark.
“Jojo is getting so much better,” Huggins said. “For a freshman he gets a lot of done. For anybody he gets a lot done.”
West Virginia had the hot hand from the get go and made 14-of-19 field-goal attempts through the first 13 minutes to lead 36-18 after a Mitchell jumper.
The advantage was still comfortable at 45-28 after Kobe Johnson scored in the paint, but the Midshipmen controlled the final 3:04 of the half starting with Patrick Dorsey’s triple that cut their deficit to 14.
Benigni scored four points on separate buckets within 17 seconds and Dorsey wrapped up the first-half scoring with a triple that allowed the visitors to trail by 10 at the intermission.
“It starts with the guards. We have to keep the bigs inside. They’re bigs. They don’t really belong on the perimeter,” Kedrian Johnson said. “We have to help them out by staying in front of people. That’s all it really comes down to is keeping the guards in front of you.”
Mitchell made 8-of-12 shots to go with six rebounds. He did a wealth of damage from the high post area against the zone.
“The more versatile I am, the more valuable I am,” Mitchell said. “I want to be able to do everything on the court at a very high level. That’s how I see the game.”
Stevenson followed with 13 and had a team-high seven boards to go with five assists. Toussaint was steady off the bench and recorded 12 points and five boards. He shared team-high assist honors with Kedrian Johnson as the point guards had seven apiece. Johnson also added 11 points in the victory.
Benigni led all players with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Yoder added 10 to give Navy a second double-figure scorer in its third straight loss.
West Virginia held a commanding 38-23 rebounding advantage and registered a season-high 22 assists in the victory.
“It’s not our offense. It’s our defense,” Stevenson said. “We have to get so much better defensively on the ball and with our rotations. We mentally know what to do. It’s about going out there and doing it.”
(Bob Huggins postgame press conference)