West Virginia knocks off Rider, Improves to 4-2

Despite Sagaba Konate (knee) being out, the Mountaineers (4-2) took care of the Rider Broncs (2-2) 92-78 for the third straight win after a dropping two of their first three games to start the season.

In a tight first-half that saw the Mountaineers struggle to find much offense, they took the lead with under five minutes to go for good and never looked back, effectively putting the game away with a 14-2 start to the second half.

Lamont West led all scorers with 20 points, while Esa Ahmad and James Bolden — who played only limited minutes after going down hard late in the first-half—added 16 and 12 respectively. Freshman point Jordan McCabe contributed a season high 8 assists as the Mountaineers recorded 21 assists on 30 field goals.

Konate’s absence and Bolden’s limited minutes highlighted a recurrent theme for the Mountaineers — injuries. Those have caused a number of line up changes throughout the season and as a result the expected “core” of this team have played limited minutes together. WVU had to once again tinker with its line up with tonight’s starting five representing the fifth different combination in six games.

WVU moves to 3-1 all time versus Rider. WVU improves to 22-8 versus members of the MAAC.

Up Next

• WVU will take on Youngstown State on Saturday, December 1 at 4:00 PM in Morgantown, WV in a game against Huggins protege Jarrod Calhoun. You can catch it on AT&T Sportsnet.
• The Broncs travel to Hofstra on December 8.