Lorient’s Profession-Excessive 26 Leads WVU Over Lehigh

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used a career-high 26 factors from senior ahead Brenen Lorient to defeat Lehigh 69-47 Sunday afternoon at Hope Coliseum.

Lorient, an Ocala, Florida, resident, who tallied 20 factors twice final yr whereas at North Texas, was 11 of 15 from the ground, together with 3 of 4 from 3-point distance, whereas grabbing seven rebounds.

“He was extremely efficient,” West Virginia coach Ross Hodge stated. “When he is shooting the 3 well like he did today, that adds a completely different dimension to his game and to our game. Honor (Huff) and Trey (Eaglestaff) are going to get so much attention from the 3-point line and that opens up space for other players. If you add (Lorient) to the mix, it can be really challenging.

“I believed he simply made very, quite simple performs repeatedly,” Hodge added. 

Center Harlan Obioha chipped in with 12 points and a team-best eight rebounds to help West Virginia improve to 3-0 on the season.

The Mountaineers limited Lehigh (1-2) to just 34.8% from the floor while forcing the Mountain Hawks into 16 turnovers. It’s the 26^th straight game a Hodge-coached team has held the opposition to fewer than 70 points in a game dating back to last year when he was at North Texas.

“I believed the primary quarter-hour of the sport have been nearly as good of a defensive stretch as we have had since we have been enjoying collectively,” Hodge said. “Our exercise stage was actually excessive. We acquired deflections that led to easy performs on offense. I believed we had a superb movement and all people was concerned. The ball was transferring, and it was type of discovering the proper participant on every possession.”

Freshman guard Andrew Urpsevic led Lehigh with 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting. Junior guard Joshua Ingram contributed 14.

West Virginia jumped out to a 42-20 halftime lead, but much like it did in its season opener when it outscored second-ranked Houston 34-31 in the second half, Lehigh played even with its power conference opponent. 

The two teams today finished the second half with 27 points each.

“We did not play as effectively early within the second half as we might have preferred, however you have to give the opposite staff and the opposite coaches credit score,” Hodge said. “It’s straightforward to at all times level at what you did not do or did do, however generally you have to tip your hat to the opposite staff.”

On the glass, West Virginia was much better this afternoon with a 38 to 25 advantage – the first time this year the Mountaineers were able to outrebound their opponent.

Huff, WVU’s leading scorer coming into today’s game, finished with 8 points while Jasper Floyd had 7.

Eleven different players got onto the floor today for the Mountaineers.

Lehigh, making its first appearance in Morgantown since Dec. 30, 2018, has lost all six meetings against West Virginia and is 0-4 in the Coliseum.

West Virginia remains at home to play rival Pitt on Thursday night at Hope Coliseum. The Panthers are 2-0 with early wins over Youngstown State and Longwood prior to Monday night’s game against Eastern Michigan.

The Panthers have enjoyed recent success against the Mountaineers winning the last two games 86-62 in Pittsburgh last year and 80-63 in Morgantown two years ago.

Limited tickets remain for Thursday night’s game, to be televised nationally on FS1. Remaining tickets are on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.