MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Facing an early 10-point deficit in Monday’s season opener against Niagara, West Virginia picked up the pace by way of applying full-court pressure.
Soon after, the Mountaineers would run off 21 unanswered points, and they led for double figures over the final 23-plus minutes of a 91-46 victory inside Hope Coliseum.
“We made some minor adjustments with our ball screen coverages, and tried to be a little more aggressive,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. “The strength of this team will be the numbers and when you combine that with the ability of guys like Amadou [Seini] and Mo [Sylla], those guys can move.”
For WVU, which next welcomes Stetson at 7 p.m. Friday, it marked the eighth straight season-opening victory. The 45-point margin is the Mountaineers’ highest in a season-opening victory since 2015 (107-61 against Northern Kentucky).
The 21-0 spurt came after WVU trailed 16-6 and began with two Finley Bizjack free throws. It featured four separate field goals from freshman guard Miles Sadler, who led all players with 16 points and nine assists in his collegiate debut.
“I feel like we’re one of the more athletic teams and when we press, we’re going to cause teams to turn it over and be able to run out,” Sadler said.
Brenen Lorient’s 3-pointer 8:32 before the break left West Virginia with a 27-16 lead, though the Purple Eagles hung in over the remainder of the half and reeled off a mini 5-0 run of their own that included a triple from Bastien Rieber to trim their deficit to 35-26.
WVU settled for a 43-30 halftime lead on the strength of 12-of-17 shooting on two-point field goals and 10 turnovers forced.
Niagara was 12 for 23 from the field at halftime and had made half of its dozen 3-point attempts.
“Our grittiness wasn’t as high as it needed to be in the beginning, because they were making comfortable shots,” Lorient said.
The margin was still 13 at 52-39 more than 4 minutes into the second half before the home team scored 13 unanswered points to put the game out of reach.
That stretch featured four points from Martin Somerville and separate triples from Joson Sanon, the latter of which made it 65-39 with 11:43 remaining.
“You start off on the bench and kind of see what the team needs. I felt like we needed some defensive intensity and tried to speed them up and get them playing fast,” Somerville said.
After shooting 4 for 16 on treys in the opening half, the Mountaineers made 9-of-14 attempts from long range over the final 20 minutes.
“Seven of our first 8 shots were from three, and I felt those were dictated by them a little bit more than we would have liked,” Hodge said. “Our spacing wasn’t great. We settled just a bit. After seven of the first eight shots, one of our next 11 was a three. Once you start getting paint touches, you get more rhythm taking shots you’re used to shooting.”
Lorient scored 13, Somerville added 12 (all in the second half), Bizjack and Javan Buchanan scored 11 apiece and Sylla made all five field-goal attempts in a 10-point performance.
WVU won the board battle 36-24 and remarkably did not allow an offensive rebound.
“They’re a team that sends most back, but you would think one bounces off your foot and it’s a team rebound or something,” Hodge said. “We did a good job of cleaning the backboard up. In the second half, we made them miss as opposed to hoping they would miss.”
Logan Woods led Niagara with 12 points.
The Purple Eagles were held to seven second-half field goals and did not record a point at the free-throw line, missing all four of their attempts.