West Virginia closed the early non-conference portion of the schedule in style.

The Mountaineers cruised to an 87-71 win over previously unbeaten No. 19 Richmond in a game where the home-standing team raced out to an early dominating edge and held onto it.

West Virginia used their defensive pressure to disrupt the Spiders offense and even create offense for themselves netted 15 points off turnovers in the opening frame. That, along with a barrage of good shooting, helped propel the Big 12 Conference club to a 52-30 lead heading into the halftime break. West Virginia shot 23-35 from the field and made 6-9 from deep in the opening half.

They assisted the ball on all but nine of those field goals and were at 1.368 points per possession on 38 trips. It was as well as the Mountaineers have played all season, and perhaps in recent memory.

For head coach Bob Huggins, it was validation on what he has talked about with his team all-season.

“They’ve shot like that in practice pretty much all along. I don’t think it was a matter of them looking like they were hot, they were just normal,” he said.

For sophomore guard Deuce McBride, it was a reminder that if the Mountaineers want to come close to any of their goals this season, they have to play with intensity on a nightly basis. That certainly wasn’t the case in the game before against North Texas, but this team looked very different.

“I think our intensity in the first half is something we need every game for all 40 minutes. I think if I can start that off and others can feed off of it, we’re going to be hard to beat,” he said.

It was the second consecutive game that the Mountaineers relied on the defensive pressure to throw an opponent off of its game. Because the Spiders rely on passing the ball around, back cuts, flare screens and a variety of other things, the goal was to make them play faster and get out of their offense.

Being able to switch things up and instead of using man-to-man, up the line and forcing passes away from the basket, the pressure defense speeds other teams up and makes them uncomfortable. They’re certainly not Press Virginia, but they don’t need to be either.

It was a statement game for West Virginia heading into league play, which is set to begin Friday against Iowa State. The long layoff comes at the right time for the Mountaineers who need it to recover and now find themselves perched inside the top ten nationally.

That means using the early part of the week to get some time off, then looking at film to of both themselves and the Cyclones.

“When we make shots, we’re pretty good. We stop turning it over, we’re even better,” Huggins said.

Mentally, the challenge is now to become consistent. The type of swings that have occurred in the past two games simply can’t happen against the more talented clubs that await in the Big 12. But for now, it was quite the close to the non-conference slate and the type of bounce back West Virginia needed.

The Mountaineers sit at 6-1 with the only loss coming in a narrow defeat against No. 1 Gonzaga. The road won’t get any easier from here, but the team believes they’re prepared for what’s next.

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