MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Eron Harris and two other West Virginia players scored their career-highs Sunday to beat Duquesne 96-83
Harris scored 33 points, Juwan Staten scored 28 and Devin Williams, a true freshman, finished with 18, supplying 79 of the Mountaineers’ point total and avenging a 2012-13 season loss against Duquesne.
The Dukes had dealt West Virginia a 60-56 defeat in Pittsburgh, and the Mountaineers went on to finish 13-19 for the 2012-13 season.
Harris, a sophomore connected on 12-of-19 field goals, including 6-of-8 from behind the 3-point arc and pulled down six rebounds against Duquesne (1-2). Harris’ previous best (25 points) came on Feb. 27, 2013 against Baylor.
Staten connected on 7-of-11 field goals and hit a career-best 12-of-17 free throws for West Virginia (2-1).
Williams scored 8 of 10 on field goal attempts. He grabbed 10 boards in just his third game all-time.
Duquesne closed to 75-71 with 7:30 left, but Harris and Terry Henderson knocked down triples to send the Mountaineers ahead 81-71. The Dukes put two scorers in double figures-Ovie Soko (19) and Dominique McKoy (13).
West Virginia had the first half in hand 49-39 with 11 seconds left-but Duquesne sharp-shooter Micah Mason accomplished a four-point-play to cut the Mountaineer lead to six at intermission. WVU’s largest lead was 17 at the game’s 2:20 mark.
The Mountaineers shot 33 of 56 from the field (59 percent) and had only eight able-bodied scholarship players for the game. West Virginia is 67-3 at home against non-conference teams in the last nine years, including 48 of its last 49 games.
The Mountaineers are 99-6 under Coach Bob Huggins when posting a higher shooting percentage than its opponent. Duquesne was 45.5 percent (30 of 66) from the floor.
For Huggins, it was his 725th all-time win against 287 losses. Those 725 put him ahead of Ray Meyer for 18th place all time among NCAA Division I coaches. Huggins is the third winningest active head coach behind Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.
