Box Score Charleston, WV - The University of Charleston (11-2, 7-2) played its best game of the season Saturday evening in pummeling WVIAC rival West Virginia State (6-8, 4-5) 92-56.  The 36-point victory was the largest margin of victory in the series since 2002 when they defeated State 114-72.

UC jumped out to an 18-2 advantage on the visiting Yellow Jackets by forcing 7 early turnovers and getting easy looks at the rim, including a highlight alley-oop from Hayden Annett (Portland, Australia) to Xavier Humphrey (Wake Forest, N.C.).  The Golden Eagles dominated the first half and maintained a double digit lead going into halftime with scoreboard showing 40-24 in favor of Charleston.  State did make a run at the Eagles coming out of the locker room, knocking the lead down to 12 points, the closest they had been since tip-off.    UC then responded with a 14-4 run of their own to take the lead out to 22 points with about twelve and half minutes left to go in the contest.  

The Golden Eagles continued to hit shot after shot and force State into turnovers or highly contested attempts.  Charleston's lead ballooned up to 30 with just over nine minutes remaining, which let Coach Downey utlitize his bench and give his key guys some much needed rest going into a big matchup Monday.  Charleston kept the lead around 30 for the final nine minutes and sent the Yellow Jackets back to Institute with a 36-point loss, 92-56

UC had 5 players in double figures for the game, but got contributions from his entire bench outscoring WV State's bench 35-12.  The Yellow Jackets were led by Anton Hutchins who finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-12 shooting. Charleston will face State again on Feb. 23 in Institute.

Charleston will take on #1 nationally ranked West Liberty on Monday evening at 7:30pm.  This will be the first time facing a #1 team since 2000 when UC upset Salem at Eddie King Gym behind 50 points from Ajamu Gaines.  UC Athletics is encouraging all fans to wear gold in our special "Gold Rush" promotion.