2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament: West Virginia vs Morgan State

After struggling with their shooting in the early going, the second-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers found their range and easily defeated the 15th-seeded Morgan State Bears, 77-50.

Kevin Jones scored 17 and Devin Ebanks pumped in 16 to pace the Mountaineers' scoring attack. Ebanks added 12 rebounds, a steal, and a blocked shot to his stat line as well.

Morgan State scored the game’s first 10 points, and its 2-3 zone kept West Virginia from hitting a field goal for the first 7:45 of the game. But as West Virginia heated up, the Bears had no answer and they trailed 38-27 at halftime.

Morgan State forward Kevin Thompson scored 11 points and gathered in 9 rebounds and blocked 3 shots to lead the way for the Bears, but he was on the bench for much of the first half with two fouls. Reggie Holmes, the all-time leading scorer for the Bears, finished with 12 points in an insufficient outing for a team that needed more scoring punch.

If there was any doubt about the outcome at intermission, it disappeared soon enough, as West Virginia quickly scored the first six points of the half to make it 44-27 in favor of the Big East Tournament champions. Morgan State had no answer for Jones and Ebanks on the defensive end, and could offer no shooting touch offensively, tossing up bricks and air balls all over HSBC Arena in Buffalo. For the game, the Bears shot just 29 % including 16 % from 3-point range.

The West Virginia lead hit 30 points when Ebanks hit a pair of free throws with 9:32 to play to make it 63-33. At that point, the Mountaineers had outscored the Bears 58-19 over the course of roughly 20 minutes of play.

The game started out as though there was an upset in the making. The Bears built a 10-0 lead as West Virginia missed its first 11 shots. The Mountaineers finally got on the board with a Da’Sean Butler free throw with 14:36 left in the half. In all, West Virginia made just 3 of its first 16 attempts from the field.

As West Virginia remained cold, the Bears wasted several opportunities to expand their lead with turnovers and poor shot selection. Still, Morgan State held on to a 14-5 lead at the second media timeout with 11:45 to play in the half.

Then the Mountaineers began to demonstrate why they are a No. 2 seed in this tournament. Kevin Jones got hot, scoring 9 straight West Virginia points. Devin Ebanks tied the game at 19 with a falling layup and a few possessions later, Joe Mazzulla gave West Virginia the lead for the first time at 20-19 by making an old-fashioned three-point play with just under six minutes left. After their cold shooting start, the Mountaineers hit 11 of their last 18 shots of the half.

Morgan State continued to play sloppy basketball and could to nothing to stop West Virginia. Ebanks got an emphatic slam off a fast break to cap an 11-0 Mountaineer scoring run. John Flowers hit a shot in the lane while falling down to give West Virginia a double-digit lead at 38-27 going into intermission.

WHAT'S NEXT

West Virginia will face 10th-seeded Missouri, a winner over seventh-seeded Clemson in Friday's other day session contest in Buffalo.

NCAA Tournament First Round Recap - West Virginia vs Morgan State

WHAT'S NEXT