Chalk one up for the defense.

Mountain State corralled University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) three-point bombers and held the Patriots to 27.6 percent shooting from the field in the first half en route to a 79-62 win at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Tuesday night.

“(MSU assistant) coach (Dave) Barksdale came in at the half and told (the team) that may have been the best half of defense he’d seen since he’s been here (seven years),” coach Bob Bolen said. “And he doesn’t give out defensive compliments very often.”

The Patriots, a national tournament team last year, were coming off a 71-60 exhibition loss to Division I Mississippi State of the Southeastern Conference Saturday.

By the middle of the first half, the result of this one was nary in doubt.

The Cougars got off to a quick start behind James Spencer and Adron Marshall and a staunch defense that held the Patriots to just one basket in the first 12 minutes.

By that point it was 24-2.

“We got our (butts) kicked,” Cumberlands coach Don Butcher said. “It’s that simple. It was horrible. This is what happens when you don’t play hard. We got what we deserved.”

NAIA Division I preseason No. 5 MSU improved to 3-0 while the Cumberlands, just outside the Top 25, went to 0-1.

“They are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation,” Bolen said. “They led the NAIA in three-point shooting last year. To hold them down — and they still ended up 9-of-22 — was big.”

Also big was the adjustment MSU made to Cumberlands’ decision not to play any help defense off MSU shooter Spencer, who was averaging 30 points coming into the game.

“We didn’t think they would help off James Spencer, and they didn’t, and our guys made some good adjustments to that,” Bolen said.

Which included several drives to the basket that resulted in easy lay-ups.

When MSU finally cooled down, the lead was insurmountable.

The Patriots cut it to 10 on two occasions, but the Cougars heated up in the second half to take control.

“Right now, at this point, (MSU is) better than Mississippi State,” Butcher said.

Spencer led the Cougars with 25 points (11-of-16 from the floor) while Jarvis Jackson had 14, Marshall 12 and Jason McGriff 11. Tyrice Watkins had nine rebounds to lead in that department.

Curtis Cross had 17 for Cumberlands, Luke Fitzgerald 15 and Matt Daniel 10.

MSU outshot the Cumberlands 30-of-56 (.536) to 28-of-58 (.397).

Now the Cougars can look to Saturday’s exhibition game with NIT champion West Virginia at the WVU Coliseum. Tipoff is 7 p.m.

“We’ll celebrate this one about 30 minutes, then we’ll start breaking down WVU and K-State (WVU coach Bob Huggins coached at Kansas State last year) tape and see if we can get a line on what they might try to do,” Bolen said. “It should be a lot of fun.”

— E-mail: demorrison@

register-herald.com

No. 5 Mountain State 79,

Cumberlands 62

CUMBERLANDS (0-1)

Josh Phillips 1-4 0-0 2, Maurice Brown 1-1 0-0 2, Mike Gibson 3-9 0-0 8, Luke Fitzgerald 5-7 5-6 15, Chad Byron 2-8 0-1 6, Curtis Cross 7-11 0-0 17, Leslie Delk 0-1 0-0 0, Dustin Fothergill 0-4 0-0 0, Matt Daniel 3-10 2-2 10, Derius Chaney 0-0 0-0 0, Isaiah Mills 1-2 0-0 2, Jason Smith 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-58 7-9 62.

MOUNTAIN STATE (3-0)

Tyrice Watkins 2-4 1-2 5, Jason McGriff 3-7 3-4 11, James Spencer 11-16 3-3 25, Jarvis Jackson 6-8 0-0 14, Adron Marshall 5-8 2-2 12, Ralph Legg 1-6 3-4 5, Denzel Lyles1-3 0-0 2, Aleksic Vaso 0-0 0-0 0, Papa Gassama 0-1 0-2 0, Rod Green 0-0 0-2 0, Ermin Tarcin 1-3 3-3 5. Totals 30-56 15-22 79.

Halftime—MSU 37-21. 3-Point Goals—CU 9-22 (Phillips 0-1, Gibson 2-5, Cross 3-5, Fothergill 0-2, Daniel 2-5, Smith 1-2.), MSU 4-11 (Watkins 0-1, McGriff 2-3, Spencer 0-1, Jackson 2-2, Legg 0-3, Tarcin 0-1). Fouled Out—Brown (CU). Rebounds—CU 33 (Fitzgerald 8), MSU 33 (Watkins 9). Assists—CU 9 (Fothergill 3), MSU 23 (Jarvis Jackson 5). Total Fouls—CU 17, MSU 15. A—955.