WVU Downs Rider
Routt gets first start for Mountaineers
Trending
MORGANTOWN-Before West Virginia (4-2) even took the court in Wednesday's home contest with Rider (2-2), it was announced that junior forward Sagaba Konate would not be available for the game due to a right knee injury.
So, earning his first start was Cameron High School standout Logan Routt.
The move paid dividends as Routt hauled down a career-best eight rebounds and tied his career-best with seven points in 14 minutes of action as WVU rolled to a 92-78 win over Rider.
"I found out about 15 minutes before the game when they (the coaches) put the lineup on the board," Routt said. "I had a coach in high school who was a military man and he always told us that 'if the guy beside you drops his gun are you going to sit there and crap your pants or are you going to pick it up' so I just decided I was going to go out there and play just as hard as I could and do whatever I needed to do to help our team win.
"It was cool," Routt said when asked about running out on the carpet to begin the game. "Being from West Virginia, everybody knows the story, running out on that carpet when they announce your name is a big thing."
Fans were also treated to a Chase Harler dunk in the first half.
The Moundsville native mis-fired on his first three shots of the game - all from 3-point land - but the Wheeling Central Catholic graduate took a feed from freshman Jordan McCabe with 2:54 left until the intermission for his second career dunk at WVU.
"Yea, I had my first on Huggs' 800th win," said Harler. "Jordan (McCabe) made a great pass and I just decided to go in hard. Usually I try to do something fancy and it doesn't work out, so this time I just went for the dunk."
For West Virginia, which has now won three straight and will play host to Youngstown State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, junior Lamont West came off the bench to tally a game-high 20 points.
Four other Mountaineers also reached double digits led by senior Esa Ahmad's 16. James 'Beetle' Bolden, who had missed the last two games with injuries, chipped in with 12 - all in the first half - while freshman Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Harler added 11 each.
For Rider, which place five players in double figures, Frederick Scott came off the bench to tally 17 points. Stevie Jordan added 13 while Dimencio Vaughn and Jordan Allen chipped in with 11 apiece. Anthony Durham rounded out the double figure scorers with 10.
"Right now, it's more about chemistry than anything else," said Harler. "It was great having Beetle back out there because it gives us another guard who has played a lot and knows what Huggs wants."
The game began with the visitors jumping out to a 6-0 lead as the Mountaineers mis-fired on their first eight shots.
"A lot of that was because we were shooting bad shots," head coach Bob Huggins said, who picked up win No. 849. "Once we started passing the ball around more and making that extra pass, we were able to get better shots and began knocking them down."
And, many of those that were missed were rebounded by the Mountaineers.
"I started seeing a little better effort from our guys on the offensive boards," Huggins said. "We weren't shooting very well at the beginning and I told the guys during that first timeout that we needed to hit the glass harder."
They did and West Virginia now has a three-game winning streak.