CHARLESTON, W.Va. - All the ingredients seemed in place for an intense, competitive renewal of the West Virginia State-University of Charleston basketball rivalry.
State entered the night as the favorite, of course, but UC had been playing better of late and, through the game's first 17 minutes, owned a four-point lead.
From there, however, State began accentuating its transition game and aggressiveness, built a 26-point advantage and breezed to an 87-69 victory Wednesday night in Institute. Fleming Hall, which is normally filled to its 1,000-seat capacity for a UC game, had a few empty seats.
It was the Yellow Jackets' 12th victory in their last 14 games against the Golden Eagles.
In congratulating State coach Bryan Poore after the game, first-year UC coach Mark Downey pledged to make things more competitive in the future.
"I told Coach Poore at the end of the game that I promise to make this series better,'' said Downey. "I didn't say it in a smart-aleck kind of way. I just want this to be a good game. I told him this ought to be a better game, and it wasn't. It's unfortunate.''
After UC (6-9, 4-7) moved out to a 33-29 advantage with three minutes left in the first half, State (11-2, 8-2) began asserting itself and outscored the Golden Eagles 41-15 over the next 15 minutes, transforming the four-point deficit into a 70-48 lead.
Shortly thereafter, the lead reached 76-50 on a Will Collins' 3-pointer with 7:05 left.
"In the second half,'' said Poore, "I thought we just kind of wore 'em down a little bit. Our pressure and our aggressiveness got them on their heels a little bit. I thought we were scoring out of our defense, and the pace was in our favor.''
UC, which had won three of its previous four games, scored only two field goals in the first 91/2 minutes of the second half. All the while, State's aggressive defense was contributing to its offense.
"We have to be on edge defensively because we're not good enough shooters or good enough offensively just to come down and play a half-court game,'' said Poore. "So we need transition. We need an up-and-down game. When we're doing that and making them, the opponent, play fast, you might give up a few open looks, but the pace of the game is to our favor.''
State's Bo King, who led the scoring with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and had four steals, found the pace to his liking.
"We wanted to speed it up,'' said King, "get them out of their element and try to force them to do things that they're not used to doing.''
When Downey emerged from the locker room after a lengthy chat with his players, he said he was not pleased with the UC toughness.
"The guys haven't been listening,'' he said. "State just figured out they could go at us. They just out-toughed us for the last 20 minutes of the game. They started to figure it out - just drive it at them. They went right at us, punched us in the mouth and we lay down. A lot of easy baskets. A lot of easy baskets. And then they really got after us defensively. That was the difference.''
Poore expected a second-half challenge, but it didn't happen.
"I really thought Charleston was going to make a run there,'' he said, "but they couldn't get any shots to go down, and we were getting easy looks down on the other end.''
Complementing King's scoring were junior Corey Bethea, who came off the bench to hit 6-of-7 shots for 17 points, and senior Fred Harris, who was 6-of-6 from the floor for 14 points and blocked seven shots.
Senior Josh "Cookie'' Miller, who had been sidelined since Friday with a slight shoulder separation, attempted just seven shots, scored seven points and handed out six assists. King also had six assists.
Senior Jon Liggins led UC with 20 points, including 13 in the first half. Senior Ibrahim Marone and sophomore Brandon Crompton added 10 points each.
