There were a lot of sleepless Cougars Saturday night after Mountain State University lost to West Virginia Tech (96-91) and its No. 1 ranking in NAIA Division I.

“I definitely lost a couple hours sleep,” Bo Harris said. “That was a tough loss and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

“Me, too,” Marcus Hunter agreed. “We didn’t play well. I just kept thinking about what we could have done differently.”

Just over 48 hours later, No. 4 MSU was back on the court and they took a little of that frustration out on fellow Independent Region member Voorhees, winning 83-59 Monday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

It wasn’t pretty.

It wasn’t without lapses in focus and shooting lulls.

But it was a win.

“That loss Saturday was tough,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said, agreeing that his sleep pattern was interrupted by the loss. “But we’re just glad to be back in the win column.”

The Cougars shook up the starting lineup, as Nick Aldridge made his first start and Marcus Hunter started at the point.

And MSU struck early, as A.J. Pigram momentarily regained his shooting touch with three 3-pointers as MSU bolted to a 15-4 lead. By the five minute mark, MSU lead 38-18.

Then the freeze came, as Voorhees outscored MSU 13-3 over the final 4:30 of the first half to cut the half-time deficit to 10, 41-31.

“I thought we started quickly, but we did have some lulls,” Bolen said. “We played hard on defense, we played with intensity, but we weren’t hitting our shots.”

Voorhees would get as close as nine in the second half, at 58-49 after Andrew Dikas hit a three-pointer.

But Mountain State went on a two-minute 13-0 run to close the game out with 8:11 remaining.

Lee led the Cougars with 19 points (7-of-11 from the field) and Harris added 16 points and six rebounds. Pigram finally got back in double figures with 11 points (though he didn’t hit a shot from the field after his quick start) and Ermin Tarcin, coming off the bench for the first time since early in the first semester, had 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds.

“We got lackadaisical at times,” Harris said. “Sometimes we lost focus, but we kept our intensity up on defense. When you do that, the offense will come. What we have to do now is remember our main goal is still there: To win the national championship.”

Hunter had a good floor game for the Cougars. He had six points, eight assists, six rebounds and just one turnover.

“Starting or coming off the bench, it doesn’t matter to me,” Hunter, who made his second career start, said. “Whatever I can do to help the team win.”

“I thought Marcus Hunter, with eight assists and just one turnover, really came in and gave us a spark,” said Bolen, who now has 388 wins at MSU (388-106). “He had a real solid game.”

Andrew Dikas led Voorhees (5-8) with 18 points and Jarrell Wilborn finished with 10.

Mountain State is back in action Thursday, playing Ohio State Marion in the first round of the Mountain State Coal Classic College Division. OS-Marion, which fell to MSU 127-32 Dec. 27 when it was limited with just eight players, has added six new players to its roster.

— E-mail: demorrison@

register-herald.com



No. 4 MOUNTAIN STATE 83,

VOORHEES 59

VOORHEES (5-8) 

Jarrell Wilborn 4-9 2-5 10, Derrick Williams 1-5 1-2 3, Hubert 4-9 0-3 8, Calvin Harris 3-11 2-2 8, Larry Baron 1-4 0-0 2, Jammal Johnson 2-5 0-0 4, Antwon Allston 0-0 0-0 0, Antwan Carter 2-6 2-2 6, Andrew Dikas 7-11 2-2 18. Totals 24-60 9-16 59.

MOUNTAIN STATE (15-2) 

Anthony Pigram 3-11 2-2 11, Marcus Hunter 3-5 0-1 6, Andrew Lee 7-11 5-6 19, Nick Aldridge 4-6 1-1 9, Bo Harris 7-12 2-5 16, Adison Mosquera 0-0 0-0 0, Rashad Nesbitt 0-0 0-0 0, Tony Brown 3-7 0-0 8, Daniel Scott 0-1 0-0 0, Vedrin Zivic 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Wamsley 0-1 2-2 2, Greg Grimes 1-4 0-0 2, Franklin Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Ermin Tarcin 3-5 4-6 10 . Totals 31-63 16-23 83.

Halftime—MSU 41-31. 3-Point Goals—V: 2-14 (Williams 0-2, King 0-1, Harris 0-3, Baron 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Dikas 2-4), MSU 5-23, (Pigram 3-11, Lee 0-1, Harris 0-1, Brown 2-6, Scott 0-1, Wamsley 0-1, Grimes 0-1, Tarcin 0-1). Fouled Out— Williams. Rebounds—V 36 (Wilborn, Dikas 6), MSU 38 (Tarcin 8). Assists—V 13 (Dikas 4), MSU 22 (Hunter 8). Total Fouls—V21, MSU 19. A—599.