Published: October 31, 2008 12:52 am      

Cougars convincing in victory over Ohio Valley

The new lights at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center were certainly illuminating. And they shined brightest on some of the new stars of Mountain State, which kicked off the season with a convincing 102-55 win Thursday night over Ohio Valley.

The result, though not unexpected, certainly lent credence to the team’s No. 3 ranking in the NAIA preseason poll.

Among the standouts on a night when the game was really never in doubt:

Andrew Lee, who had a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. He was 7-of-10 shooting from the field.

Bo Harris, who had 16 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots, and was 7-of-9 from the floor.

Anthony Pigram, who had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Marcus Hunter, who had 17 points off the bench, including 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range.

Greg Grimes, who had 15 points off the bench and made 5-of-11 from three-point range.

Adison Mascara, whose number wasn’t even in the book at the game’s start, who had 11 rebounds to go with four points.

Convincing.

Not to MSU coach Bob Bolen.

“Well, it’s a start,” he said, looking at the stat sheet. “Playing hard is something that is learned and something that can be done 100 percent of the time. I’m happy to get the win. But all this game did was show us how far we have to go. But we would have two good offensive possessions and then a ragged one. On defense, we’d do everything right, and then on the next we’d break down.”

Indeed, the Cougars weren’t efficient on every possession and they shot just 44.7 percent for the game (38-of-85). On the other hand, they held OVC to 27.4 and outrebounded the Fighting Scots 67-39.

“At times we looked like we knew what we were doing; other times we looked like we had 12 new players,” Bolen said.

The players were a little bit more upbeat about the win.

“We’ve got a lot of different guys on this team who can score,” Lee said. “Tonight just happened to be my night.”

“We’ve got guys who can score, guys who can jump, guys who hustle,” Hunter said. “My thing was to make my shots when I went in the game. This is a good team, the best I’ve played on. Everybody can do things that are going to help us win.”

MSU scored the first eight points of the game — in the opening minute — and the Scots never got any closer than three, at 17-14.

Up 22-18, MSU went on a 33-7 tear, with five different players hitting threes, to lead 55-25 at the break.

From there, it was guess-who-will-score-the-100th-point time (it was A.J. Pigram, who also scored the first points of the season).

“I knew we clicked with about 13 minutes left (in the first half),” Lee said. “They started getting tired, and we got turnovers and were scoring off them.”

“We’ve only had 12 practices,” OVC coach Mike Snell said. “We wanted to come in and compete, but we also wanted to get a look at different kids. But Mountain State is good. They are big, strong, athletic and they can shoot.”

“We’ll take a look at it and we’ll correct some things,” Bolen said. “Like I said, it’s good to get the win. But we have a long, long way to go.”

MSU (1-0) will be back in action at the BRCCC Saturday, taking on Maryland Bible College at 4 p.m.



Ohio Valley 55

Lance Jones 6-10 0-1 13, Hrvoje Muhek 5-15 1-2 11, Deshawn McCain 1-1 0-0 3, Steve Lockhardt 2-8 2-3 6, Micah Mills 1-13 6-6 8, Sean Whiting 0-2 3-4 3, Rodney Everage 2-11 0-0 4, Jacob Borner 2-8 0-0 5, Austin Jones 1-2 0-0 2, Harris Danesi 0-0 0-0 0, Todd Hughes 0-0 0-0 0, Marcus Stenson 0-1 0-0 0, Lam Chuol 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 20-73 12-16 55.

Mountain State 102

Andrew Lee 7-10 5-6 20, Bo Harris 7-9 1-2 16, Ermin Tarcin 1-5 2-2 4, Anthony Pigram 5-18 1-1 13, Tony Brown 3-6 0-0 7, Rashad Nesbitt 0-2 0-0 0, Marcus Hunter 6-9 2-2 17, Vedrin Zivic 1-4 0-0 2, Josh Wamsley 1-2 0-0 2, Greg Grimes 5-13 0-0 15, Rod Green 0-2 2-4 2, Adison Mascara 2-5 0-0 4. Totals: 38-85 13-17 102.

Halftime score: MSU 55-25. Three-point goals: OVC: 3-19 (Jones 1-4, Muhek 0-1, McCain 1-1, Mills 0-3, Everage 0-2, Borner 1-6, A. Jones 0-1, Stenson 0-1; MSU: 13-33 (Lee 1-2, Harris 1-1, Pigram 2-9, Brown 1-3, Hunter 3-4, Wamsley 0-1, Zivic 0-1, Grimes 5-11, Mascara 0-1. Fouled out: none.