West Virginia bounces back with 70-57 victory against Jacksonville State – WV MetroNews

(Game highlights)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With the absence of expected starting point guard Kerr Kriisa for the season’s first nine games, West Virginia guard Kobe Johnson is thrust into a more featured role than at any point over his first two college seasons.

Along the way, Mountaineers’ interim head coach Josh Eilert has continued to express faith in Johnson and the junior’s ability to fill in as a point guard.

On Tuesday against Jacksonville State, Johnson put forth his most productive performance in a West Virginia uniform, scoring a career-high 19 points to go with five assists and six rebounds, helping lead the way in the Mountaineers’ 70-57 victory at the WVU Coliseum.

“From Day 1 when he walked into West Virginia, he’s always been real steady,” Eilert said. “You knew you could count on him, but you had to get more aggression out of him and that’s been a struggle. For Kobe to be more aggressive and get that confidence, that’s going to go a long ways for West Virginia basketball.”

It was a much-needed performance from Johnson and the Mountaineers alike, which came four nights after a disappointing loss to Monmouth.

“I’ve put in a lot of work and been through a lot. These guys trusted me so it feels really good,” Johnson said.

Against the Gamecocks (1-2), WVU led for the final 28:38, overcoming a somewhat slow start to take control late in the opening half. 

Jacksonville State’s largest lead was four on separate occasions, the latter of which came at 16-12 following a three-pointer from Marcellus Brigham Jr.

When Jesse Edwards made two free throws 8:38 before halftime, it gave the Mountaineers a 20-19 advantage — and they’d stay on top the rest of the way.

(Quinn Slazinski & Kobe Johnson postgame)

The Gamecocks went nearly 3 minutes without a point, during which time West Virginia built a five-point advantage, before Quincy Clark ended the drought with a short jumper that brought JSU to within 24-21.

Yet WVU outscored the Gamecocks 16-6 over the final 5:26 of the opening half, utilizing a 2-3 zone to limit the Jacksonville State offense in the process. During that stretch, Edwards accounted for three dunks and one free throw, Ofri Naveh had a fast break dunk and Quinn Slazinski and Josiah Harris each made triples in the final 1:08 of the half.

“Jesse is a great kid. I always say it on the court, ‘I like you mean Jesse.’ When he wants to be, he’s a bad dude,” Slazinski said. “He’s a great kid from the Netherlands, but when he grits his mouth piece in the huddle, that’s what I like out of him.”

The surge allowed the Mountaineers to hold a 40-27 advantage at the break as they made 14-of-26 first-half field goals, had a 21-15 rebounding edge, dished out 11 assists and limited the Gamecocks to 10-for-29 shooting, including 4 of 13 inside the arc.

“A couple guys we were worried about shooting us out of it, but there were several kids that weren’t even looking at the rim,” Eilert said. “We were mindful of who to guard and who to back off of.”

Johnson led all players with 11 points and had four assists at the intermission.

Slazinski accounted for three of WVU’s first four baskets after halftime, including a triple with 15:54 remaining that upped his team’s advantage to 50-33. Josiah Harris’ layup at the 13:17 mark gave the Mountaineers a 19-point advantage for their largest lead of the contest.

With WVU in front 55-43, Johnson and Slazinski combined to score straight points, including a layup from the guard with 6:52 to play that left the visitors trailing by 18.

However, JSU didn’t go away quietly, and KyKy Tandy connected twice from long range as part of a 10-0 Gamecocks’ run that cut the Mountaineers’ lead to 61-53 with 3:56 left.

“We let our guard down a little bit. That’s something we have to work on,” Johnson said. 

Slazinski answered with two free throws out of a timeout and Harris drilled a corner trey with 3:16 left to put to rest any thought of a late JSU rally.

“JoJo can hit shots. He’s always working out,” Slazinski said of Harris. “We look at his Instagram story and he’s in the gym at 11:30. I’m like, ‘dude we play tomorrow, go to sleep.’”

WVU shot better than 50 percent (23 for 45), made 8-of-19 threes and attempted 15 more free throws than the Gamecocks, though the Mountaineers misfired on nine of their 25 foul shots.

Slazinski matched Johnson for game-high scoring honors with 19 and added seven rebounds. Edwards contributed 14 points and six boards and though he attempted only six field goals, the Syracuse transfer drew 10 fouls on the opposition.

“The game plan was to play through Jesse and we need to do that as much as we can, because we get a lot better looks when we play inside-out,” Eilert said.

Harris added 12 points, nine of which came on a trio of triples.

“That ball was moving on a string and ball movement is very hard to guard,” Slazinski said.

Naveh was inserted into the starting lineup in place of guard Seth Wilson, who played 22 minutes but did not score or attempt a shot in a reserve role.

WVU finished with a 26-12 edge in paint points.

Tandy led JSU with 18 points and Clark added 13. Besides that duo, the Gamecocks made only 9-of-33 field-goal attempts.

Brigham and teammate Juwan Perdue led all players with eight rebounds each, but the Mountaineers held a 38-34 advantage on the boards.

“It was a buy-in game in so many ways. We had to take Saturday off and Sunday we spent a lot of time in the film room and got down in the trenches of what we need to fix,” Eilert said. “We probably spent an hour in there and when we came out, they responded in a really good way. I told them the approach, energy and enthusiasm and the way they transitioned from that loss, that’s the type of mindset we have to have.“

(Josh Eilert postgame press conference)