CHARLESTON, W.Va. - With a difficult trip to the Eastern Panhandle looming, the University of Charleston got exactly what it needed Monday night at Eddie King Gym - a laugher.

That's what the Golden Eagles pulled off, a 111-61 discoloration of Bluefield State. It was the highest score and largest margin of victory for UC, which sent the Big Blues (1-15, 0-12 West Virginia Conference) to their 14 straight loss.

PJ Reyes scored 23 points and Eladio Espinosa had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead UC (14-5, 9-4), which was playing without two regulars: Marco Richardson (hamstring, day-to-day) and Noah Fischer (appendicitis, out a couple of weeks).

The Eagles shot 56.5 percent to 35.8 percent for the Big Blues, forced 23 turnovers, went 32-of-37 from the line and won the rebounding battle 45-31. Up "only" 17 points at the half, UC outscored the Blues 54-27 in the final 20 minutes.

"Pleased. Finally, we knocked somebody out," said UC coach Mark Downey. "We've had trouble - even playing them the first time [106-68, Nov. 16], we didn't push the score out until there were eight, nine minutes left in the game.

"To push it out and let other guys play, that's just helping us."

At first, Bluefield wouldn't go away, rattling off eight straight points to close UC's lead to 25-21 at the 10:42 mark. Vincent Rogers had five of those, including a three-point play.

After that, the Eagles perked up with nine straight, including Hayden Arnett's conversion of a three-shot foul, then pulled away with runs of 13-3 and 9-2, the latter punctuated by Montavious Marc's putback at the buzzer.

Marc turned in the defensive play of the game late in the half, smacking Malik Edwards attempted power dunk into the stands.
With Reyes scoring 19 and Evan Faulkner 10, the Eagles shot 53.1 percent and hit 20-of-23 from the line in the first half. But Downey wanted a little more.

"We were mad at halftime because they shot 43 percent; we wanted to be at 39 or better," Downey said. "They were 29 in the second half, 35 for the game. We were a little upset that we were only plus-6 on the glass; we finished plus-14. Not bad."

Marcus Knott started the second half with a steal and layup at the other end, and an alternating hoops exhibition and a train wreck ensued. The Eagles took four minutes to stretch the lead to 31 and three-plus more to get it to 39, and then piled it up to 97-46 at the 8:13 mark.

The toughest part for UC was getting to the century mark, finally clipped on Kyle James' layup with 5:01 left.

Xavier Humphrey had 15 points and nine rebounds, Arnett scored 14 and Faulkner stayed at 10. Marc had nine rebounds and three blocks before fouling out in just 13 minutes.

After that night of fun and games, UC turns its attention to a taxing road trip, playing at Shepherd on Thursday before heading to Pitt Johnstown for a Saturday afternoon game. The Eagles' next home game will be Feb. 1 against Ohio Valley.

"We've beaten [Shepherd] pretty good here [75-47 on Jan. 14], but when we go up there it's a totally different game," Downey said. "And then we go to UPJ, which is really hard to play. Their gym's a tough place to play, they play on that rubber court, and they're good there. They really score there."

"That's a tough trip. The good things, if we can go and play well at Shepherd, then UPJ has to play at Ohio Valley [on Thursday]. Actually, they've got to travel further than we do."