Published: November 13, 2008 11:46 pm      

WVU’s Huggins announces first signing

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins has announced the signing of Dalton Pepper to a national letter-of-intent for the 2009-10 academic year.

Pepper, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound shooting guard, is currently in his senior year at Pennsbury High, playing for Coach Frank Sciolla.

He ranks as the 30th-best small forward in the country by ESPN.com. Pepper ranks as the 31st-best shooting guard and as one of the top 150 players in the 2009 class by Rivals.com. He ranks as the 30th-best shooting guard in the 2009 class by Scout.com.

A native of Levittown, Pa., Pepper averaged 22 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and shot 50 percent from the floor as a junior en route to being a first-team Pennsylvania Class AAAA all-state selection. He broke his father’s school record for points in a season, scoring 746. His 317 rebounds ranked as one of the five best rebounding seasons in school history.

A first team all-Suburban One League player since he was a freshman, he was the National Conference Player of the Year in 2008. Pepper is a three-time Bucks County Courier Times Golden Team member and was the newspaper’s Player of the Year in 2008.

Pepper led Pennsbury to the PIAA Class AAAA state semifinals and a school-record 30-3 mark in 2007-08. At the recent Eddie Griffin Challenge, Pepper was named MVP, finishing with 19 points and nine rebounds, including the game-winning basket.

“We fully expect Dalton to come in and contribute immediately,” Huggins said. “He has excellent size and strength for an off-guard. He is well-coached in high school, so his adjustment to college basketball should be minimal. He’ll remind Mountaineer fans of Alex Ruoff.”

As a junior, Pepper scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the semifinal loss to Chester. Going into his senior season, Pepper is 20 points from breaking Pennsbury’s career scoring mark. The three-year starter has a chance to finish his career with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

He played AAU basketball for the Jersey Shore Warriors.