Portland, OR – After losing to Purdue in the opening round of the PK 85 Legacy tournament, the West Virginia Mountaineers (5-1) rebounded Friday night with an 89-71 win over the Portland State Vikings (2-4). Six Mountaineers posted double-digit results, with forward Trey Michell leading the way with 16 points, followed by Emmitt Matthews Jr. with 14 points.
Portland’s top scorer, guard Jorell Saterfield, netted the first bucket of the game on the Vikings’ opening possession with a three for early advantage. However, West Virginia quickly took the lead with a 5-0 sprint topped off with an old-fashioned three-pointer play.
Portland responded to ensuing possession with a three from Bobby Harvey before West Virginia forward Trey Mitchell kicked off an 8-2 run with four hits as the Mountaineers led 13-8 after 15:09 of the first half went.
Mitchell and the Mountaineers continued their offensive performance, extending the run and building a 20-10 lead before forging a 28-15 advantage midway through the first half behind a 12-15 throwing edge of the field.
West Virginia led by as much as 14 before Portland went on a 7-0 run to get to seven, topped by another Woods three-pointer at 6-14 in the first half.
Although the Mountaineers committed 10 turnovers in the first half, WVU forced Portland to 16 turnovers while remaining efficient from the ground (19-29) for 53 first-half points and a 17-point halftime advantage. with guard Kedrian Johnson leading all scorers with 12 points and Trey Mitchell going into the break with 10.
11/25/2022; Portland, Oregon, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Kedrian Johnson (0) puts the ball in the basket during a quick first-half break against the Portland State Vikings at the Moda Center.
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY sports
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The Mountaineers opened the second half with Erik Stevenson delivering an alley-oop to Emmitt Matthews Jr. and two Matthews free throws on ensuing possession to put WVU 57-36 ahead in the first minute of the second half.
Three Mountaineer turnovers in three minutes opened the door for a 10-0 run in Portland to take the Vikings to 10 at the 13:02 mark of the second half.
West Virginia keeper Joe Toussaint hit back-to-back buckets to end the run in Portland and bring WVU back to 14, but Isaiah Johnson drove to the bucket, slammed it home and drew the foul but missed the free throw, which came from the under 12 minute media timeout as the Mountaineer advantage remained constant at 12.
The Mountaineers steadily increased their lead to 19 with 6:27 to go before extending the lead to 23 with just under two minutes to go as the Mountaineers drove to an 89-71 win.
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