Mountaineers solid with first-half shots

NO. 11 WEST VIRGINIA 87, NO 19 RICHMOND 71

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins knew his team was capable of putting together a solid shooting performance.

It took six games for that to happen.

Miles McBride scored 20 points and the 11thranked Mountaineers rode a hot-shooting first half to an 87-71 victory over No. 19 Richmond on Sunday.

West Virginia (5-1) made 10 consecutive shots during an 18-1 run at the end of the first half for a 52-30 halftime lead. The team shot 65.7% (23 of 35) from the floor in the half, making 6 of 9 threepoint attempts.

It didn’t come as a shock to Huggins.

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

In their previous game, the Mountaineers fell behind by eight points at halftime before rallying to beat North Texas. But West Virginia was determined from the start against Richmond (4-1).

McBride made 9 of 11 fieldgoal attempts. He pointed to his intensity in the first half, when he scored 16, as a catalyst to his team’s breakout performance.

“In the North Texas game we didn’t have any intensity,” McBride said. “I think our intensity in the first half is something that we need every game for all 40 minutes. I think if I can start that off and others can feed off it, I think we’re going to be hard to beat.”

Taz Sherman added 15 points and Sean McNeil and Oscar Tshiebwe each scored 12 points for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia shot 58% from the floor, its first time surpassing 50% in 17 games. It was the Mountaineers’ best performance since shooting 58% against TCU last January.

“They haven’t shot that well too often here in the last couple of seasons,” Richmond Coach Chris Mooney said. Tyler Burton had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Nathan Cayo also scored 14 points and Blake Francis had 12 points for Richmond.

NO. 3 IOWA 106, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 53

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Luka Garza scored 23 points and Joe Wieskamp added 20 to help No. 3 Iowa beat Northern Illinois.

Garza, who came into the game leading the nation in scoring, added eight rebounds while playing just 20 minutes as Coach Fran McCaffery used his reserves for much of the second half.

The lone unanimous selection to The Associated Press preseason All-American team, Garza was 8 of 10 from the floor and is shooting 69.1% for the season. Wieskamp played 19 minutes.

Iowa (6-0), which came in ranked second in the country in scoring at 99.4 points per game, had its third game of 100 or more points. The Hawkeyes have scored 50 or more points in five consecutive halves. Iowa had a 25-2 first-half run that included a stretch of 15 consecutive points.

Adong Makuoi had 14 points for Northern Illinois (0-5).

NO. 4 MICHIGAN STATE 109, OAKLAND (MICH.) 91

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Gabe Brown scored a career-high 20 points and No. 4 Michigan State used a 13-0 run early in the second half to pull away from Oakland.

Rashad Williams scored 23 of his 36 points in the first half for Oakland, his second consecutive huge game against a big-name opponent. The Golden Grizzlies (0-7) trailed by one shortly after halftime before Michigan State (6-0) quickly pushed the lead into double digits.

Aaron Henry scored 15 points and Joshua Langford contributed 13 for the Spartans.

NO. 22 OHIO STATE 67, CLEVELAND STATE 61

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Duane Washington Jr. scored 17 points and Ohio State held off Cleveland State.

Coming off a road victory at Notre Dame on Tuesday, the Buckeyes (5-0) struggled to put away the Vikings (03). C.J. Walker added 16 points and freshman Zed Key had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

NO. 23 ARIZONA STATE 71, GRAND CANYON 70

PHOENIX — Remy Martin hit a three-pointer with 9 seconds left and scored 31 points, lifting Arizona State past Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon ( 4- 1) rallied from an eight-point deficit to take a 70-68 lead in the final minute on consecutive three-pointers by Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Alessandro Lever. Arizona State ( 4- 2) called a timeout after Lever’s three- pointer and worked the ball around to Martin in the corner. He made the shot and Blacksher’s final attempt rimmed out.

Blacksher had 21 points and Lever 18 for the Antelopes.