WVU Concludes Homestand Sunday Towards Mercyhurst – West Virginia College Athletics

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The concluding sport of West Virginia’s four-game homestand will happen Sunday afternoon on the WVU Coliseum when the Mountaineers play host to 6-9 Mercyhurst.
 
It’s West Virginia’s closing nonconference sport earlier than beginning Large 12 play towards eighth-ranked Kansas on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at Allen Fieldhouse. 
 
“Like I informed our guys, ‘We have one left, so we have got to ensure we end earlier than we go residence for Christmas,'” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries mentioned.
 
The Lakers have made the soar to Division I this 12 months and are competing within the Northeast Convention. The leap has been considerably turbulent up to now with losses to George Washington, Columbia, Air Power, California, San Francisco, Lafayette, Kent State and Binghamton on the docket.
 
Mercyhurst does personal victories over Morgan State, Houghton, Canisius, Mount Aloysius, Sacramento State and Penn State Altoona.
 
Towards Morgan State, Mercyhurst obtained 16 factors off the bench from 6-foot-8 freshman ahead Mykolas Ivanauskas in a 78-73 victory.
 
Senior guard Bernie Blunt III was the star of the Canisius triumph with 16 factors and was additionally prime point-man with 25 within the Lakers’ 66-60 win at Sacramento State.
 
Ahead Jeff Planutis was Mercyhurst’s prime scorer with 13 factors in Wednesday night time’s 62-60 loss at Binghamton. 
 
The Lakers led that sport 28-24 at halftime.
 
Planutis, a 6-foot-6 senior ahead, was the staff’s main scorer final 12 months when Mercyhurst competed within the Division II ranks within the PSAC. He averaged 17.8 factors and grabbed 3.8 rebounds per sport final 12 months.
 
He is one among three double determine scorers for the Lakers this 12 months, averaging 14.9 factors per sport.
 
Aiden Reichert, a 6-foot-4 senior ahead, is averaging 11.6 factors and 4.9 rebounds whereas Blunt, a 5-foot-11 guard, is scoring at a ten.2 points-per-game clip.
 
West Virginia, in the meantime, boosted its document to 8-2 with an 84-61 victory over Bethune-Cookman final Saturday night. Guard Javon Small scored 27 factors, whereas ahead Amani Hansberry contributed 16.
 
Freshman guard Jonathan Powell, beginning rather than injured Tucker DeVries, added 14. DeVries missed his second straight sport with an undisclosed higher physique damage.
 
Small has scored 20 or extra factors in 5 of his final seven video games and is now averaging 19.8 factors per contest, which is tied with Utah’s Gabe Madsen for the tops within the Large 12 Convention this week.
 
No video games had been scheduled with closing examinations going down this week at West Virginia College.
 
“Usually, finals week is usually a little difficult since you’ve obtained exams happening, however our guys have had a very good week,” DeVries mentioned. “I assumed they’ve been fairly centered with good vitality, particularly when you do not have a sport for an entire week.”
 
DeVries mentioned the emphasis has been totally on themselves since final Saturday’s sport.
 
“Our entire focus this week has been on cleansing up the offensive execution issues with some guys in numerous roles,” the coach defined. “After which the rebounding piece, as a result of we have got to proceed to make some strides there.”
 
The Mountaineers’ improved six spots to No. 28 within the newest NCAA NET rankings. West Virginia is presently 2-1 versus Quad 1 groups, 0-1 towards Quad 2 groups, 1-0 versus Quad 3 groups and 5-0 towards Quad 4 groups.
 
Gonzaga, which WVU defeated 86-78 within the Bahamas again on Nov. 27, is rated fourth this week, however Georgetown is one other nonconference opponent to control. The 9-2 Hoyas not too long ago earned victories over Syracuse and Creighton and jumped 16 spots to No. 79 this week.
 
West Virginia defeated Georgetown 73-60 on the Coliseum on Friday, Dec. 6.
 
ESPN+ will televise Sunday’s sport, set to tip off at 2 p.m. Mountaineer Sports activities Community radio protection with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and David Kahn will get issues began at 1 p.m. on stations all through West Virginia, on-line through WVUsports.com in addition to the Varsity Community and WVU Gameday apps.
 
This will probably be Mercyhurst’s first-ever go to to the WVU Coliseum.