West Virginia's Bench Power Mountaineers to Season-Opening Win

The Mountaineer bench produced 42 points and accounted for seven steals in a 94-84 season-opening win over Akron

Doug Johnson - Sports Illustrated: West Virginia

West Virginia tipped its season off Friday night against Akron (1-1) while coming away with a 94-84 victory. 

The Mountaineers played fast and aggressive early on. After trailing 11-5 at the first media timeout, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins amped up the pressure and the full-court pressure made its first appearance of the season. West Virginia went on an 18-8 run over the next five minutes to take a lead and never looked back.

Huggins went to his bench early, using 11 of his players in the first 12 minutes. He used a variety of lineups that showcased versatility. 

The bench boasted their size with forwards Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews Jr., Oscar Tshiebwe and 6-8 guard Jermaine Haley Jr. Huggins also showed a four-guard look with Chase Harler, Miles McBride, Jordan McCabe, and Taz Sherman sharing the floor.

They have the ability to speed teams up, while also being able to pack it in and play big.

The bench shined for the Mountaineers with Harler, Brandon Knapper, McBride, and Sherman combining for 17 of the 47 first-half points. The bench finished with 42 points, led by McBride with 11. Knapper and Harler chipped in nine points each, while Sherman finished with eight. McNeil had four and Routt contributed one in his six minutes of play.

"If you count Jermaine as a perimeter player, then we have seven perimeter players," said Huggins before he gave an example on building the foundation of Press Virginia. 

"When we got it rolling again, we brought in four perimeter guys to go with Gary Browne and Juwan Staten, but we got it going because we had a really strong bench," explained Huggins. 

As a senior coming off of the bench, Harler provides great leadership to a young backcourt. 

"Huggs says it all the time. We might not have the best five out there, but we're going to have the best 10," Harler commented after the win. "Every night someone is going to be stepping up for us. The bench definitely stepped up tonight, and hopefully, we can keep it going."

McBride was the key contributor off the bench and he wasted little time settling in as a true freshman. In his first eight minutes, McBride recorded six points on 3-4 shooting, adding a rebound, an assist, along with two steals. McBride finished the game with 11 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists, four steals, and a block. 

"I look at Jevon, Dax, Tarik Phillip, Juwan Staten, and guys that could really sit down and defend," said McBride. "I know I'm not as quick as those guys were, but I'm a little bit longer so I just try to use my length. If I can get my feet active like theirs, then I'm going to be an elite defender, I think."

West Virginia travels to Pitt on Friday night on ESPNU.