Mountaineers set to Battle the Quakers

The West Virgnia Mountaineers welcome in the Penn Quakers Friday night

Morgantown, WV - The West Virginia Mountaineers (3-0) host preseason Ivy League favorites, the University of Pennsylvania Quakers (1-3) Friday night inside the WVU Coliseum with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the action streaming on ESPN+.

The Quakers dropped their first three games of the season, dropping the season-opener at Rick Pitino’s Iona squad by 18. Next, Penn fell to Missouri by seven on the road, then the home-opener to Towson 80-74 before picking their first win of the year at Drexel 64-59.

Junior guards Jordan Dingle and Jordan Slajchert lead the team scoring. Dingle is averaging a team-best 19.8 points per game, hitting 55.6% from inside the arc but struggled from three-point range, shooting 22.2%. The 2021-22: First-team All-Ivy League selection has poured in 30+ points six times during his career, three came in the final five games of the season last year. For his career, he is averaging 17.5 ppg for his career.

Slajchert is second on the team in scoring, averaging 15.0 ppg. After going 1-8 from the field, including 0-6 three-point range, he bounced back the last three games, putting up 21 points in consecutive games before tallying 16 points in the win over Drexel. Since the opener, he’s shot 60% (9-15) from behind the arc. Last season, Slajchert went for a career-high 25 points against thirteenth-ranked Arkansas.

Center Max Orca-Lloyd (6’9”, 225-lbs) is coming off a season-ending injury after appearing in six games a year ago. The senior is leading the team in rebounds at 6.8 rebounds per game while averaging 5.8 ppg.

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West Virginia has an average margin of victory of 20.3 ppg through its first three games, and the Mountaineers are shooting 49.4% from the field, ranking third in the Big 12 Conference.

Five Mountaineers are averaging double figures. Leading the way is forward Trey Mitchell at 14.0 ppg on 68.2% shooting from the field, and averages five rebounds per game. He put up 21 points in the Mountaineers win over Morehead State Tuesday night. The Texas transfer has been limited in playing time through the first three games after dealing with an injury, averaging 21.0 minutes per game.

Senior guard Erik Stevenson is second on the team in scoring at 11.7 ppg while senior guard Joe Toussaint has provided a spark off the bench with 10.3 ppg.

Forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. leads the Mountaineers in minutes, averaging 31.0 per game. He is producing 11.3 ppg and nabbing four rebounds per game, while Jimmy Bell leads the team in rebounding at 6.0 rpg and guard Kedrian Johnson leads the team in assists (3.3) and steals (2.7) per game.

The Mountaineers are 1-1 all-time versus the Quakers. The last meeting came in the first round of the 1981 NIT with WVU taking the win 67-64. The 

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