It was obvious it was a big game, when former Cougar and the tallest man to play college basketball in the U.S., 7-foot-8 Paul Sturgess, now with the Harlem Globetrotters, showed up for Mountain State’s highly-anticipated rematch with Pikeville Tuesday.

And it was obvious it was no ordinary game, when Pikeville entered the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center with its own contingent of security guards, after an incident during the teams’ meeting last month.

But the only incident that occurred this time was the smackdown No. 9 Mountain State (9-3) put on No. 22 Pikeville (7-4).

Behind 33 points from Cam Miller, MSU opened as much as a 30-point lead in the second half before coasting to an 83-73 win in front of a crowd of 1,509.

“It was personal to us,” said Miller, who had 20 points in the second half, including 17 in the opening 9:05 of the second half, when MSU raised a 40-27 halftime lead to 68-38. “They beat us twice and it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row. I think that is what we thought about more than what happened down there.”

The game at Pikeville (a 98-93 win) ended with both coaches and MSU’s Devon Peterson being tossed, for an incident that Cougars didn’t feel they started.

The security was tight, but nothing could stop Miller Tuesday.

The 6-8 senior hit two 3s to open the second half — one from the right and one from the left — as MSU blitzed the Bears 28-11.

“That was the best stretch we’ve played offensively,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “But for us, the key was defense. To hold a team like Pikeville to 18 percent shooting from 3 is good. Everything started for us on the defensive end.”

And a key to that was the defense of Mantas Drungys on All-American Trevor Setty, who had 58 points in the last two games he has played against MSU, including 27 in the national championship game last March.

“Coach (Artis) Maddux said last week that he wanted to put Mantas on Setty, and that Mantas wanted to accept the challenge,” Bolen said. “Mantas is a tough defender and he really did a great job on Setty.”

Setty finished with six points on 1 of 7 shooting, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range.

“I’ve played him twice; I knew what he likes to do and he doesn’t like to put the ball on the floor,” Drungys said. “My whole mind-set was to shut him down. He is a lot of their offense and if you can get him out of his game, the whole offense is going to be affected.”

Isaiah Hill finished with a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds and Peterson added 14.

“It was a big win,” Peterson said. “I felt like I let my teammates down at Pikeville, so to get a chance to redeem myself was good. But I’m more happy for the team. This was a big win for us tonight.”

“We were hyped for this game all week,” Hill said. “It means a lot to come out and play with a lot of energy and get a win like this. I wish we would have closed it out better, but we got the ‘W’ (win) and that’s what we wanted.”

Mark Williams finished with 13 assists for MSU.

Chris McHenry had 25 points to lead the Bears. Kenny Rhymes had 11 and Shane Burrell, an NAIA All-American at Union (Tenn.) last season, had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

But none of that mattered, as Miller led an all-out assault with one of his best games in a Mountain State uniform.

In addition to his raining in 5 of 10 3s in his 33-point total, he also had six rebounds, four steals and three blocks — and no turnovers — in 33 minutes.

“Cam has worked really hard on cutting down on his turnovers,” Bolen said. “When you look at the overall game he played, he was on tonight. And our guys did a good job of finding him.”

“I think it was (one of his better games),” Miller said. “And it couldn’t have come at a better time. But I don’t want to take anything away from the guys on the team. It wasn’t just me. Tonight it was a total team effort.”

— E-mail: demorrison@register-herald.com



MOUNTAIN STATE 83, PIKEVILLE 73

PIKEVILLE (7-4)

Chris McHenry 11-18 1-1 25, Josh Whitaker 2-7 1-2 5, Trevor Setty 1-7 4-4 6, Chris Watson 0-2 0-0 0, Shane Burrell 3-7 405 10, Chris Puckett 0-2 0-0 0, Kenny Rhymes 3-8 4-6 11, Andrew Young 3-7 2-2 9, Cordero Ellis 0-3 0-0 0, Ryan Hines 2-9 2-6 7, Darren Stewart 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-71 18-26 73.

MOUNTAIN STATE (9-3)

Cam Miller 12-18 4-4 33, Mark Williams 1-4 4-7 7, Isaiah Hill 6-9 2-2 14, Mantas Drungys 2-5 3-6 7, David Nyarsuk 2-6 0-0 4, Devon Peterson 5-12 3-4 14, Creshaun Holt 0-3 0-2 0, Bruce Komakech 0-2 0-0 0, Steven Gatkouth 0-1 0-0 0, Dino Muslic 0-0 4-4 4. Totals 28-60 20-29 83.

Halftime—MSU 40-27. 3-Point Goals—Pikeville 5-27 (McHenry 2-6, Whitaker 0-3, Setty 0-5, Burrell 0-1, Puckett 0-2, Rhymes 1-2, Young 1-2, Hines 1-5, Stewart 0-1), MSU 7-21 (Miller 5-10, Williams 1-3, Drungys 0-1, Nyarsuk 0-1, Peterson 1-3, Holt 0-2, Komakech 0-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Pikeville 43 (Burrell 12), MSU 42 (Hill 14). Assists—Pikeville 11 (McHenry 4), MSU 19 (Williams 13). Total Fouls—Pikeville 24, MSU 22. A—1,509.