Mountain State University hit the court running Saturday. The Cougars opened the season with an 86-68 victory over Ohio Valley University at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

Cougars coach Bob Bolen was pleased with his team’s play in the opener.

“For the first time out of the gate playing together, I think we were fine,” he said. “We had spurts where we played well and looked like we had the potential to be a good basketball team. Then there were times where we didn’t play well and there was a lull in the action. Overall, the first game — we started with a win. Ohio Valley had a very good point guard, a tough post player and they had some good role players, so I’m excited with the win for the first game.”

Wyoming transfer James Spencer introduced himself to the MSU faithful with a 28-point, seven-rebound game. Spencer also dished out five assists and grabbed four steals while turning the ball over only once.

“He’s a ballplayer,” Bolen said. “He knows when to shoot and when to pass. He makes good decisions. Twenty-eight points, seven defensive rebounds and one turnover the whole game, he lets the game flow. He’s a big-time player. I’m glad he’s on our team.”

The Cougars started the game aggressively, rolling out to a 21-point advantage behind the play of Spencer, Adron Marshall and South Alabama transfer Jason McGriff. Marshall knocked down six of his 13 points and McGriff scored six of his 10 points in the first five minutes of the contest.

Rod Green came off the bench and scored all nine of his points as MSU surged out to a 35-14 lead.

Late in the first half, the Fighting Scots put together a 12-2 run to close the gap to 43-33.

“At the end of the half, they had some subs out there and they weren’t hitting the boards as hard as they did,” Ohio Valley coach Bill McGhee said. “We were able to make a little run there. We had to keep them off the boards better and we didn’t do it.”

The Cougars would clamp down on the defensive end in the final minute of the first period and convert that into three quick baskets, a Jarvis Jackson trey, a transition lay-in by Spencer and a pull-up jumper from around the foul line by Spencer at the buzzer, to push the advantage back to 17 at 50-33.

“They cut it to 10 and I thought we had three great defensive stops,” Bolen said. “We picked up the intensity defensively and then we executed offensively. The last one, we got a steal, and a lot of kids panic with five seconds, and (Spencer) is behind halfcourt at five seconds and takes his time and gets the easy 12-footer. That just shows his experience.”

From there, Mountain State cruised, with the bench seeing plenty of action.

Marshall led the Cougars on the boards with 10 rebounds to go with his 13 points and Tyrice Watkins gave MSU four scorers in double figures, finishing with 12.

Chris Leborious topped the Scots with 19 points, while Stephen Camberis and Jacob Borner chipped in 13 points apiece.

“Sixty-eight points is not going to get it done,” McGhee said. “They’re pretty aggressive, so they were exactly what we expected — very, very aggressive on the boards — and we didn’t take those extra shots away.”

Mountain State (1-0) returns to action Thursday with an exhibition game at Morehead State.

— E-mail:

rjett@register-herald.com



Mountain State 86, Ohio Valley 68

Ohio Valley University (0-1)

Omar Campbell 1-10 1-2 3, Stephen Camberis 5-12 0-1 13, Alexa Carr 2-4 0-1 5, Harris Danesi 1-6 2-2 4, Chris Leborious 9-16 1-2 19, Micah Mills 1-5 0-0 2, Jacob Borner 4-6 2-4 13, Hrvoje Muhek 3-5 0-0 7, Deshawn McCain 0-0 0-0 0, Lam Chuol 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 27-67 6-12 68.

Mountain State University (1-0)

James Spencer 12-21 0-0 28, Jarvis Jackson 1-4 0-0 3, Tyrice Watkins 4-10 4-4 12, Adron Marshall 6-12 1-2 13, Jason McGriff 5-9 0-0 10, Ralph Legg 2-5 00 4, Denzel Lyles 0-5 0-1 0, Ricky Jackson 2-6 1-2 5, Vedrin Zivic 0-1 0-0 0, Vaso Aleksic 0-0 0-0 0, Papa Gassama 1-4 0-0 2, Keron Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Rod Green 3-5 3-4 9, Ermin Tarcin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 36-83 9-13 86.

Halftime: MSU 50, OVU 33. Three-point shots: OVU 8-27 (Campbell 0-4, Camberis 3-8, Carr 1-3, Leborious 0-2, Mills 0-2, Borner 3-5, Muhek 1-2, Chuol 0-1), MSU 5-25 (Spencer 4-10, J. Jackson 1-2, Watkins 0-4, Marshall 0-1, McGriff 0-1, Legg 0-3, Lyles 0-2, R. Jackson 0-1, Zivic 0-1). Rebounds: OVU 39 (Campbell 8), MSU 54 (Marshall 10). Assists: OVU 24 (Camberis 7), MSU 22 (Spencer 5, J. Jackson 5). Turnovers: OVU 25, MSU 18. Fouls: OVU 14, MSU 15. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: OVU (bench).