No. 16 West Virginia downs Northern Kentucky
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Highland Heights, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Juwan Staten finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists as No. 16 West Virginia overcame a slow start to defeat Northern Kentucky, 67-42, on Sunday.
Devin Williams also finished with 12 points and Jonathan Holton supplied 10 points, five rebounds and three blocks for the Mountaineers (8-1), who bounced back from a 74-73 loss to LSU on Thursday.
Chad Jackson paced the Norse (3-5) with 12 points and nine rebounds, but turned the ball over six times and Jordan Jackson scored 10 off the bench in the loss.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Neither team was able to locate the basket early on as it was just an 8-8 game with 8:31 to play in the first half. After Jared Bryant's free throw, West Virginia finally started to pull away with eight straight points. Daxter Miles Jr. hit a 3-pointer and then closed the spurt with a layup for a 16-9 lead with 5:35 to play.
The Norse, however, cut the deficit to three points heading into the break as a pair of Chad Jackson foul shots around Anthony Monaco's trey made it a 20-17 game.
The Mountaineers shot 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from the floor over the first 20 minutes, while the Norse were 6-for-25 (24 percent).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
"We couldn't make a shot," West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said. "The ball didn't go in and it got ugly."
Holton's tip-in was the first of nine straight West Virginia points to start the second half and Staten's free throw made it a 29-17 game with over three minutes into the stanza.
Jordan Jackson's layup with 12:25 to play represented Northern Kentucky's second basket of the second half as the Norse trailed 33-21.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Jevon Carter's shot from beyond gave the Mountaineers a healthy 46-27 lead with 8:09 to play and West Virginia led by as much as 26 down the stretch.
Game Notes
It was the first regular-season meeting between the programs, although North Kentucky came away with a 77-74 exhibition win on Nov. 4, 2011 ... The Mountaineers shot 23-of-59 from the floor (39 percent), while the Norse went 13-for-49 (26.5 percent) ... West Virginia improved to 75-23 in non-conference games under Huggins.