WVU bounces back against Portland State 89-71

West Virginia suffered their first loss of the season last night against a challenging Purdue basketball team, but it was clear tonight that Portland State wasn’t a comparable opponent.

The Mountaineers dominated the first half, with the help of their defense, scoring 23 of their 53 first half points off of turnovers (they forced 16 in the half).

Erik Stevenson went down with an injury just over midway through the first, and was helped off of court. WVU had made six of their last seven shots at this point and the team scored with ease thus far, with an impressive 77% field goal percentage. Emmitt Matthews and Tre Mitchell, who were coming off of underwhelming performances, each had shot 3/3 from the field at this point.

Stevenson re-entered the game at the eight minute mark, a relieving sight for West Virginia fans, and didn't take long to hit a nice corner three in transition.

WVU went on an 8-0 run starting with just under 6 minutes to play in the first, to increase their lead to 16.

The Mountaineers finished their first half scoring in style, with Mo Wague finishing an alley-oop in transition off of a lob from half court, before Seth Wilson hit a three over two defenders with five seconds remaining.

The half came to a close at a score of 53-36. Kedrian Johnson scored 12 points, Tre Mitchell had ten, and Erik Stevenson and Emmitt Matthews contributed a combined 15 points.

Johnson found Matthews for an alley-oop dunk to kick off the second half scoring.

The Vikings scored ten unanswered points to cut the lead to 10 at the 13 minute mark, but Joe Toussaint hit back to back floaters to end the drought for WVU and hold on to the double digit lead.

The Mountaineers continued to take care of business to hold onto their lead, and had six players finish with scoring in double digits to come out with the 89-71 win.