West Virginia men’s basketball answered a massive first-half shooting slump with a second-half resurgence, defeating the Missouri State Bears in its season-opener at the WVU Coliseum on Monday. The Mountaineers came away with a hard-fought 67-59 win that went all the way until the final minute.
Quinn Slazinski went 3-for-4 from the free throw line to open the scoring for WVU (1-0) along with Jesse Edwards’ layup and two more makes from the line to go up 7-4. Josiah Harris then hit a three-pointer from the corner to make the score 12-4 just five minutes into the first period.
Edwards made an and-one layup and the subsequent free throw to put West Virginia up by double-digits at 15-4 before Missouri State (0-1) put on a 6-0 run with three-straight open layups at the period’s halfway point.
A three-pointer by the Bears’ guard Chance Moore tied the game before a steal and a layup put Missouri State ahead 19-17 with eight minutes to go in the first half.
Moore and Damien Mayo Jr. would then make two more layups in a row for the Bears to go ahead 24-18 then a three-pointer from Alston Mason made the score 28-24 late in the first period. The Mountaineers especially struggled shooting the ball for the entirety of the first half, with a 4-for-32 (13%) mark with five turnovers.
The culprit for this was an extraordinary 12-minute field goal drought to finish the first half, where WVU missed an astounding 21 straight shots to fall behind 30-24 to the Bears at the break.
Seth Wilson broke the drought on WVU’s first possession of the second half with five-straight points but Moore answered with a three pointer to lead 33-29.
Point guard Kobe Johnson and Edwards tied the game back at 33 with a pair of close shots and then Slazinski connected with a go-ahead three pointer and then made another long jumpshot, pushing West Virginia ahead 38-36 with 15 minutes left in the game.
After going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field to open the second half, freshman Ofri Naveh made his first basket of the season with a three-pointer, but Moore answered with two free throws and a jump shot.
After WVU held a slight 41-40 advantage, Wilson took over from beyond the arc and drained back to back three pointers to vault the Mountaineers ahead 47-40 with 12 minutes remaining.
Mason answered back with two three-point makes in a two-minute span for Missouri State but the Mountaineers benefited from two layups for senior forward Pat Suemnick to answer and maintain the lead at 52-46 with eight minutes to go.
Slazinski was true on his second three-pointer of the night before a Johnson layup then pushed West Virginia ahead by double digits at 57-46 with six minutes left.
Missouri State fought back into the game after Moore made his third and fourth three-pointers on the night. Paired with this was an emphatic alley-oop dunk by Tyler Bey, which made it a three-point WVU advantage with just under two minutes remaining.
Leading by five, West Virginia’s defense allowed Moore to get open and cash in on his fifth three-pointer of the night, making it a only two-point lead for the Mountaineers with 40 seconds to go.
With 30 seconds to go, a strong driving layup by Slazinski and two fastbreak dunks from Harris were the daggers for West Virginia as it secured a hard-fought 65-59 season-opening victory over Missouri State.
West Virginia will play another contest at home following this season-opener, facing off against the Monmouth Hawks on Friday at 7 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum. The television broadcast will be available on ESPN+.
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