MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The opening few minutes of Wednesday’s matchup with Coppin State didn’t represent anything close to West Virginia’s best basketball.

Not everything that transpired the remainder of the matchup did either, but it was far better and helped produce a 91-49 victory over the Eagles inside Hope Coliseum.

“We’ve been a fairly fast-starting team, but didn’t think we had it, whatever it is,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. “We were a step slow defensively, had a hard time keeping the ball out of the paint. They drove and we fouled early, which is typically a sign that we were late. We had some definite reactionary fouls early on.”

After West Virginia (7-2) forward Brenen Lorient scored on the game’s first possession, the Eagles (2-9) ran off nine unanswered points for their largest lead.

Even after the Mountaineers displayed signs of life and got to within 11-9, there were forgetful moments. Honor Huff made only the last of four free throws that followed two technical fouls assessed to Coppin State head coach Larry Stewart, who was ejected 6:31 into the action.

Treysen Eaglestaff’s three-pointer that broke a 13-all tie put WVU ahead to stay and marked the start of an 11-0 run that culminated with Chance Moore scoring from close range.

Huff accounted for a trio of treys over the final 5:26 of the opening half, the last of which left WVU with its largest lead to that point at 40-26.

Coppin State countered with six consecutive points to end the half, getting four from Tyler Koenig and two free throws from Hassan Perkins to trail by eight at the intermission.

At the break, 19 of WVU’s 31 field-goal attempts were threes, and the Mountaineers finished with 34 of their 64 shot attempts from beyond the arc. WVU made 11 triples and 19 two-point field goals.

“They collapsed on us when we drove, and that’s why we shot 34 threes,” Hodge said. “I thought about 28 of them were actually really good shots. If you could get past the initial line, then you were laying it up.”

Perkins accounted for the Eagles’ first bucket of the second half to trim the WVU advantage to 42-34, before the home team ran off the next 14 points to open up a comfortable advantage. Five different Mountaineers — Harlan Obioha, Huff, Lorient, Amir Jenkins and DJ Thomas — scored a stretch of more than 4 minutes that saw the Eagles go from within striking distance to an insurmountable deficit.

“Our guys responded well in the second half with the physicality,” Hodge said. 

WVU outscored the Eagles 23-5 over the final 7:24 and 51-17 in the second half after being challenged by Hodge to put forth a better showing 

“He was fired up for sure,” Moore said. “He was just holding us accountable. He knows we’re better than what we played in the first half. He challenged us to be better and produce and that’s what we did in the second half.”

The Mountaineers gained their first 30-point lead on the first of two Jenkins free throws for a 77-47 advantage at the 4:29 mark.

Coppin State made 7-of-28 field-goal attempts after halftime and committed 10 of its 15 turnovers over that time as well.

“We guarded the ball better in the second half. We kept the ball in front of us,” Hodge said. “Our activity level increased and that was the biggest difference. To start the game, they drove us right down the seams and shot layups on us.”

Moore and Huff scored 17 apiece to pace the Mountaineers. Moore made 6-of-8 shots and 5-of-6 free throws, while registering double-figure scoring for the third time in four games as a Mountaineer.

Huff made five threes and 14 of his 15 field-goal attempts were from long range. 

Lorient scored 12 and Eaglestaff added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

“If I keep working, I’m going to be more confident, which the work has never bothered me, so I’m going to keep doing it,” Eaglestaff said.

Free throws continue to be at least somewhat problematic for West Virginia, which was No. 255 nationally through eight games with a 68.9 percentage. The Mountaineers were 8 of 16 at halftime before displaying significant second-half improvement to finish 20 for 33.

Perkins led Coppin State with 11 points.