West Virginia coach Ross Hodge believes his second season at the school will feature a degree of depth that will be about strength in numbers.
The variety of scorers appeared in a dominant win to start things off, and Hodge hopes to see it again Friday night when the Mountaineers host Stetson in Morgantown, W. Va.
West Virginia (1-0) began with Monday’s 91-46 victory over Niagara that saw six players reach double figures along with Hodge using nine of his 13 players between 15 and 28 minutes.
Among them was top recruit Miles Sadler, who debuted with 16 points and nine assists.
“I think this is going to be a strength-in-numbers type of team,” Hodge said. “We have a lot of different guys who can help us in a lot of different ways.
Brenen Lorient scored 13 points and Martin Somerville tallied all 12 in the second half when the Mountaineers shot 57.1%. Finley Bizjack and Javan Buchanan added 11 apiece and Mouhamed Sylla contributed 10.
“The ability for this team to improve … I thought we got better as this game went on, and I think we will continue to get better through our shared experiences,” Hodge said.
Stetson (0-2) is coming off a rare back-to-back in college basketball that was not part of a multi-team event and is playing the third of six games against power conference opponents.
“Playing six Power 4 opponents gives our team a chance to compete against some of the best programs in the country and gives Stetson tremendous national exposure,” Stetson coach Donnie Jones said previously. “It will be one of the toughest non-conference schedules in college basketball, but we see that as an opportunity to grow, test ourselves and prepare for what we know will be another demanding ASUN season.”
The Hatters opened their season with double-digit losses at Clemson and South Carolina earlier this week.
After taking a 13-point loss to the Tigers, the Hatters absorbed an 81-55 setback to the Gamecocks on Tuesday.
Collin Kuhl heads into Friday living up to his billing as the Atlantic Sun’s Preseason Player of the Year. Kuhl scored 20 points against Clemson and led the Hatters with 17 versus South Carolina.
South Carolina outrebounded Stetson, 35-21, and tallied 44 points in the paint.