Score Predictions for West Virginia vs Youngstown State

The Mountaineer Maven staff makes picks for tonight's game.

The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-1) host the Youngstown State Penguins (7-3) Wednesday evening at six and will be streaming on ESPN+. 

Schuyler Callihan: West Virginia 70, Youngstown State 55

Youngstown played West Virginia tough a couple of years ago before the Mountaineers pulled out an 11-point win. However, with WVU's inability to score, they haven't been able to truly pull away from anyone on their schedule aside from Bellarmine. The Penguins will hang around for a while, but West Virginia will cruise in the second half to pick up their eleventh win of the season.

Youngstown head coach Jerrod Calhoun is a Bob Huggins disciple and has a lot of familiarity with what he likes to run offensively. He'll have this group mentally prepared for everything the Mountaineers throw at them, but after a while, the talent will take over.

Christopher Hall: West Virginia 75 Youngstown State 58

West Virginia, again, will be facing another program that's familiar with the Mountaineer program. YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun served as a graduate assistant for a year under Huggins at Cincinnati before reuniting in Morgantown as an assistant coach for five years.

Knowing how Huggins operates coupled with an experienced squad, I expect YSU to give West Virginia a solid test. Michael Akuchie leads the Penguins in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebounds (7.1), and a pair of big guards in Tevin Olison and Dwayne Cohill combining for 23.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. 

West Virginia guard Taz Sherman's three consecutive games of 20 or more points were snapped in the win over UAB on Saturday. He scored 17, shooting a 35.7% from the field, and has not been held to under 40% in back-to-back games all season and suspect he will bounce back with another big game while Sean McNeil appears to have found his groove, averaging 15.3 ppg and Pauly Paulicap is finding his role in the frontcourt with his counterpart Gabe Osabuohien. 

Youngstown State will undoubtedly be up for the opportunity to knock off a Power Five program. My only concern for the Mountaineers is their focus, being that this is the last game before Christmas and conference play. Regardless, I have West Virginia winning, but it's a matter of how much? I believe this is a focused group, but with the roster turnover, they get off to slow starts. The Penguins fight, but the Mountaineers, in the end, are too much. West Virginia wins in a street fight 75-58.

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