Allen leads No. 10 WVU over Coppin State 77-38 (Dec 20, 2017)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) Bob Huggins has never been one to mince words so it wasn't a surprise when he described No. 10 West Virginia's 77-38 victory over winless Coppin State as ''horrific.''
Teddy Allen scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Mountaineers (10-1), who struggled in the first 10 minutes of the game, shooting 5 of 23 over the first 13 minutes Wednesday night.
''Overall, it was a horrific display of shooting the basketball,'' Huggins said. ''I wasn't surprised. That's the way we've shot it in practice for the past two days.''
Allen led West Virginia to a 15-1 run to close the first half to take a 42-18 halftime lead over the Eagles (0-12).
''My role is to bring energy when I go into the game,'' Allen said. ''My goal is to score any way I can.''
Sagaba Konate played only 15 minutes after picking up a flagrant foul with 8:45 left in the first half, hitting Coppin State's Chad Andrews-Fulton in the face with his elbow. He would not return to the game until late in the second half.
''That was just dumb,'' Huggins said. ''That's on a dead ball right in front of everybody. It's just a dumb, dumb play, and I don't know if he knows why he does it, to be honest.''
Regular starter Lamont West missed the entire game with a sprained ankle suffered in practice earlier in the week.
Jevon Carter scored 14 points, Daxter Miles Jr. added 11 and Beetle Bolden, who sprained his ankle in the WVU's exhibition win over Wheeling Jesuit on Saturday, returned strong with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Tre' Thomas led Coppin State with nine points.
Eagles coach Juan Dixon declined to comment following the game.
BIG PICTURE
The Eagles return home for the first time this season to host Mount St. Mary's then play at Georgia Tech and Penn State before starting MEAC play.
The Mountaineers host Fordham before starting Big 12 play on a two-game road swing against Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
With this sloppy performance and another game on Saturday against Fordham, it's unlikely West Virginia will go up in the new Top 25.
A GRAND MILESTONE
With his 11 points Miles became the 52nd player in West Virginia history to surpass the 1,000 career point milestone.
''He might have set the record for the most shots taken to reach 1,000 points,'' Huggins joked.
Miles has shot 360 of 838, 43 percent, from the field over his WVU career.
PRESS VIRGINIA
The Mountaineers forced a season-high 28 turnovers, scoring 29 points off them. Coppin State averages 14.5 turnovers per game.
UP NEXT
Coppin State returns home to host Mount St. Mary's on Friday.
West Virginia finishes their home stand against Fordham on Saturday.
---
More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25
