WVU men’s hoops runs past Niagara in opener
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MORGANTOWN - West Virginia's debut for the 2026-27 season wasn't half bad.
Along the way, WVU's defense created a little history and prized freshman recruit Miles Sadler had a solid showing with 16 points and nine assists.
It all led to the Mountaineers' 91-46 victory against Niagara inside Hope Coliseum.
The history came in the form of West Virginia's defense not allowing a single offensive rebound over the course of the game. Since the 1976-77 season - when the NCAA first started recording offensive rebounds - that had never happened to the Mountaineers before.
"(Niagara) is a team that sends most of their guys back," WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. "Still, you'd think one bounces off a foot and it ends up as a team rebound or something. We did a good job of cleaning the backboard up. The second half, I felt like we made them miss, as opposed to just hoping they would miss."
In terms of impressing early on, WVU did not. Niagara (0-1) made six of its first eight shots to take a 16-6 lead over the first six minutes of the game.
"We've gotten off to good starts in our exhibitions, but that obviously wasn't the case tonight," Hodge said.
The Mountaineers (1-0) took control from there, going on a 21-0 run to essentially end all the drama. The run started with WVU scoring eight straight buckets in the paint, including one drive from Sadler that saw him blow past three Niagara defenders for a lay-up. On another possession, Sadler got himself into the paint and found Javan Buchanan with a no-look dish for another lay-up.
Sadler also added three steals, but was just 1 of 6 from 3-point range. He totaled 31 minutes of action in his first game.
However the five-star recruit out of Bella Vista (Ariz.) high school pictured his first game, seeing his team down by 10 in the opening minutes was likely never part of that vision.
"I've definitely had my back against the wall many times growing up and playing in high school," Sadler said. "It's always the same, just rally up my troops and go fight back."
WVU's defense took over in the second half, holding the Purple Eagles to just 16 points over the final 20 minutes. Still, it wasn't one of West Virginia's best overall defensive showings under Hodge. By the 15:22 mark of the second half, the Purple Eagles were shooting 55% (16 of 29) from the field and 7 of 14 from 3-point range.
"That was atrocious," was the way Hodge put it. "We turned them over in the first half, which was good, because we weren't making them miss. They shot 53% in the first half, but we were able to balance that out, because we turned them over so much."
It didn't keep West Virginia from growing its lead to 32 points, 73-41, with 7:55 remaining, with much of that coming by forcing Niagara into one turnover after another.
By the time it was all said and done, Niagara had turned the ball over 24 times and WVU scored 24 points off those turnovers.
WVU finished with six players in double figures. Brenen Lorient had 13 points and was 3 of 5 from 3-point range. Finley Bizjack and Javan Buchanan each had 11 points and Martin Somerville came off the bench to add 12 points on 3 of 4 shooting from 3-point range.
The Mountaineers, who host Stetson at 7 p.m. Friday, finished with 13 threes in all.
"I think their defense kind of opened up a lot of things for us," Somerville said. "It wasn't necessarily our game plan to get up a lot of threes. They had a lot of guys playing in a lot of gaps, which we have good shooters, so you're going to trust your shot every time."
Notes
** WVU has now won its last eight season openers. The Mountaineers last dropped the first game of the season in 2018, when they lost to Buffalo, 99-94, in overtime.
** WVU entered the game as a 28-point favorite, the largest margin the Mountaineers have been favored under Hodge.
** Sadler either scored or recorded an assist on eight of WVU's first 14 baskets.