Gallery by Karen Akers
A quick glance at the records made the game look like a mismatch.
WVU Tech head men’s basketball coach James Long knew if his team did not come ready to play, it could be a tough night.
In the end, the Golden Bears (9-2) made it look like a mismatch, handing Ohio Valley University its seventh straight setback to start the season.
With eight players scoring seven or more points on the night, WVU Tech won its sixth game in a row in convincing fashion 86-59, over the Fighting Scots.
“As we get towards the end of the year, I don’t know what teams do against us really. We have so many different weapons and they are great at what they are good at,” Long said. “It’s hard because you have to pick your poison against us where we are really so versatile. It is fun to watch this team when they are locked in. They work to make each other better.”
The Golden Bears were coming off a big win on the road against rival Rio Grande which was followed by a pair of impressive tournament wins at NAIA The Show in Tennessee over the weekend. Couple that with a Ohio Valley team that was desperate for win, a flat performance could have led to an upset.
WVU Tech made sure that didn’t happen from the opening tip.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from “The Swedish Assassin”, Andreas Jonsson jump-started the Tech offense which was red-hot from deep.
“It was great to get a quick start. We always want that hot start,” assistant head coach George Wilmore said. “The first five games of the season, maybe, we started slow. We want to start quick because we have depth. We do it by committee.”
Crisp passing led to another triple from Juvante’ Hayes before a drive from Tamon Scruggs ended with a dish to Ashton Parker who slammed it home.
Leading 17-9, the Golden Bears again went unconscious from deep.
Scruggs scored from deep on an assist from Gunner Short. Keondre’ King hit two long balls in a row on passes from Short and Jonsson. An offensive rebound from Philip Mullins was kicked out to Jonsson for another 3 that gave the home team a 29-9 advantage.
Tech would lead by 16 points at halftime, 49-33.
Part of the reason the Fighting Scots only scored 33 points in the first 20 minutes was the fact that there top scorer, Andre Leavell was held to just five points in the opening half.
“We wanted to try and contain their best player because he has the ball in his hands a lot. We wanted to ice the pick-and-roll and contain him,” Wilmore said. “We tried to make everything hard on him. They got a couple of shots and they were very efficient from 3 in the first half. In the second half, we locked in a little bit. Anytime they got in the paint, we wanted to get out and contest the other shots”
A 6-0 run to start the second half looked to be the possible knockout blow. That was before Parker Black answered for Ohio Valley with eight points in a row to keep his team within reach.
“I think on one side of the ball we did play well. I think we could have been better defensively,” Long said. “I think what we were trying to accomplish in the game defensively, we didn’t really do, to be honest. We know we are competing against ourselves.”
The success for the visitors was short lived however as Jonsson drilled another long ball to restore order. Four straight from Mullins along with an old school 3-point play from Parker pushed the lead back to 24 points at 65-41.
The lead never dropped inside 20 points the rest of the way.
Jonsson led Tech with 15 points. Parker had 13 and Short scored 10. King and Scruggs scored nine each, while Hayes and Mullins had eight apiece. Thomas Hailey scored seven.
“Anytime we have that many guys near double figures, it’s going to be hard to beat us,” Wilmore said.
The win kept the Golden Bears perfect in the River State Conference at 4-0. Next up for Tech will be a Saturday contest at Ohio Christian University. Game time is 1 p.m.