Jesse Edwards recorded a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds as West Virginia defeated Bellarmine 62-58 Sunday in Morgantown, W.Va.
Quinn Slazinski added 16 points and Kobe Johnson 13 for the Mountaineers. Ofri Naveh had 10 points and six rebounds.
Peter Suder led the Knights with 19 points, shooting 7 of 14 from the field.
For much of the game, the 3-pointer was the equalizer for the Knights (2-5), who shot 9 of 30 from deep (30 percent) while the Mountaineers managed a mere 3 of 16 (18.8 percent).
West Virginia (3-3) made 17 of 21 free throws while Bellarmine converted just 5 of 8.
An Edwards layup with two minutes left gave the Mountaineers a 58-51 advantage; he then provided the exclamation point with a dunk in transition to make it 60-53 with 22 seconds to go.
Bellarmine missed 11 straight shots from the field over a nearly eight-minute stretch over the end of the first half and beginning of the second, allowing West Virginia to build a 38-30 lead before Suder broke the drought with a 3-pointer with 16:32 left.
Five minutes later, Garrett Tipton gave Bellarmine its first lead since the 12:53 mark of the first half, hitting a transition 3-pointer to put the Knights up 45-44.
A pair of Edwards free throws at the 10:33 mark gave the lead back to West Virginia. Seth Wilson followed with a 2-point jumper, and then Edwards sank another pair of free throws to put West Virginia ahead 50-45.
A key sequence in the first half allowed the Mountaineers to grab control of the game. After Suder hit a layup to give the Knights a 12-10 lead, Suder was whistled for a foul on a Naveh shot, and the Bellarmine bench then was issued double technical fouls.
The Mountaineers made 5 of 6 foul shots to regain the lead before Johnson scored on a dunk and a turnaround jumper to cap a 9-0 run.
Johnson finished with 11 points in the first half and Slazinski had 10 as the Mountaineers built a 36-30 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
