West Virginia (9-1) picked up its second straight win with an 83-57 victory over Nicholls (6-5) Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.
There was a change to West Virginia's starting lineup with Chase Harler starting in place of Jermaine Haley, who didn't play any minutes against Nicholls.
The Mountaineers missed their first four shots from the field as Nicholls took an early 2-0 lead. Oscar Tshiebwe tied the game up with a basket and was fouled, but missed the ensuing free throw.
A three-pointer from former Mountaineer D’Angelo Hunter gave Nicholls a 5-2 lead, but Emmitt Matthews later responded with a three-pointer of his own to tie the game up at the 16:16 mark in the first half.
After a dunk from Ryghe Lyons, the two teams exchanged 5-0 runs and the Colonels led, 14-12, after a dunk from Tshiebwe and layup from Elvis Harvey for Nicholls.
A 9-0 run from the Mountaineers followed which gave them a seven-point lead over Nicholls, but after some back-and-forth scoring between the two teams, the score was at 32-24 in favor of West Virginia.
Two free throws from Tshiebwe gave the Mountaineers a 10-point lead, but Nicholls rallied back with a 7-0 run to cut the West Virginia lead down to three points.
But the Mountaineers would extend their lead to eight points and take a 39-31 lead into halftime with a three-pointer from Miles McBride and layup from Derek Culver.
Halftime Stats:
The Colonels started the second half off hot and managed to tie the game up at 43-43 with a 12-4 run. Derek Culver scored four straight points to give the lead back to West Virginia. This began a 17-3 run for the Mountaineers that put them ahead by a score of 60-46 with 9:52 remaining.
Back-and-forth scoring occurred over the next few minutes, but West Virginia was still able to maintain its double-digit lead.
From there, the Mountaineers kept their foot on the gas pedal and rolled to a second straight victory.
Next up for West Virginia is a road matchup against Youngstown State next Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
Final Stats:
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