Mountaineers Continue Homestand Against Stetson Friday Night

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia continues its three-game homestand with a Friday night clash against Stetson of the Atlantic Sun Conference.

The Hatters, coached by Point Pleasant native and former Marshall coach Donnie Jones, have dropped early season games at Clemson and South Carolina.

Stetson opened the season with an 85-72 loss to the Tigers, although the Hatters outscored Clemson 48-36 in the second half. In its most recent loss at South Carolina on Tuesday night, Stetson got a team-best 17 points and seven rebounds from 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior forward Collin Kuhl.

Jones added seven new players from the transfer portal, but keeping Kuhl in DeLand was his biggest offseason get. Kuhl averaged 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last season to earn third team All-ASUN honors, and many believe he could be a conference player of the year contender in 2027.

His 37 points, while shooting 60.9%, with 11 boards on back-to-back nights against Clemson and South Carolina demonstrate his impressive abilities.

Magnus Entenmann, a 6-foot-9, 227-pound German-born transfer from Kent State, is contributing 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds so far this season.

The Hatters, who have been outscored 91-49 in the first halves of their two games, are playing a difficult nonconference slate that also includes trips to Louisville, USF, Miami and Cincinnati before Christmas.

West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off a 91-46 season-opening win over Niagara on Monday night. Freshman guard Miles Sadler just missed a double-double in his college debut with 16 points and nine assists, leading a six-player, double-figure scoring barrage.

Others who topped double digits include fifth-year forward Brenen Lorient (13), junior guard Martin Somerville (12), senior guard Finley Bizjack and fifth-year forward Javan Buchanan (11) and sophomore forward Mouhamed Sylla (10).

"Miles got out in transition, and really after the first six minutes of the game, I thought our defensive intensity was really good," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said after Monday night's win over Niagara.

Every player who was dressed and available got into the game and nine got into the scoring column against Niagara.

"I think the strength of this team will be the numbers, and then when you combine that with the ability we've talked about, you should be able to wear some other teams down," Hodge noted.

In a statistical anomaly, West Virginia did not allow the Purple Eagles to grab an offensive rebound, nor did Niagara make a free throw (missed all four attempts) during Monday night's season-opening victory.

West Virginia has now won 153 of its last 166 home nonconference games and is an impressive 217-60 overall in nonconference competition since 2002.

All-time, the Mountaineers are 638-194 in its 57^th season of play in Hope Coliseum.

Stetson will be making its third-ever visit to Morgantown and its first since 2015, a 103-62 Mountaineer victory.

Friday night's game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+ (Nick Farrell, Warren Baker and Nathan Adrian).

Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.

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Players Mentioned

Finley Bizjack

Javan Buchanan

Brenen Lorient

Miles Sadler

Martin Somerville

Mouhamed Sylla

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