By Jed Lockett
BLUEFIELD — Mountain State University fought off an early challenge before rolling over Bluefield State College 98-47 in the second game of the Currence Classic Saturday night.
“I thought our depth played a part,” said Cougars head coach Bob Bolen. “I thought we had some guys coming off the bench that sparked us and picked us up as slow as the game started out for us. I thought our depth played a major part in how we dominated the second half.”
Bluefield State (0-2) held its own in the early going against its bigger opponent, edging out to a 17-16 lead after the first 10 minutes thanks to 3-point shooting by Rico Thompson and six early points from Raylon Almon. Thompson finished the first 20 minutes with 10 points.
Nick Aldridge kept the 10-0 Cougars in the contest, scoring 15 first-half points and giving Mountain State their first lead of the night, 22-21 with 6:28 remaining in the first half. It was part of a 20-4 run to end the first half that allowed the Cougars to finally take control of the game.
“I thought that if we were able to just get the lead, as long as they had the lead they were just kind-of playing tempo with us and they were slowing the tempo down,” Bolen said. “And once we got the lead, they kind-of had to play back and forth and we turned it into our style of game.”
“It was easy for them to come down and score especially on the interior,” Bluefield State head coach Don Jones said. “Our post defense is just not where it has to be for us to be successful. We were working hard and we were getting a few looks, knocked down a couple 3s which helped us early get out to a little bit of a lead. But because we were working so hard to score and they were working so easy, we knew eventually it was going to catch up with us.”
With a solid lead, Mountain State turned on the afterburners. Andrew Lee showed himself to be an inside force, ending the night with 12 points. Marcus Hunter hurt Bluefield State both inside and outside and he finished with 12 points as well. Barry Wellington was a threat to score wherever he went and he registered 18 points.
But the Blues never found an answer for Aldridge The senior from South Webster, Ohio turned in the biggest night for the Cougars with 20 points.
“We won’t see a post player in our league that will be close to him,” Jones said. “He just works well with the ball in his hand and we wanted to double down, but at the same token we knew if we doubled down on him they would kick out and they would get open 3s.”
Thompson continued his hot shooting from the outside for the entire game. The final score sheet showed him with six 3-point goals and he ended the night with 22 points. But he was the only member of the Blues in double figures.
Bluefield State (0-2) travels to Davis & Elkins on Tuesday.
Mountain State plays Friday in the Baisi Classic at WVU Tech.
