Ross Hodge Details the Defensive Effort and Amir Jenkins Career Evening Against Mercyhurst

The West Virginia Mountaineers (5-2) handled the Mercyhurst Lakers (3-4) Sunday evening 70-38.

West Virginia University head coach Ross Hodge met with the media following the game and discussed the defensive effort, freshman guard Amir Jenkins' career day,

Opening statement

"I thought we got off to a good start – defensively in particular. Made simple plays.

"We had a lot of respect for these guys coming into the game, again, as we always do. Our guys were keenly aware they beat Loyola-Chicago as 23-point underdogs. They went down to Marshall last week an played a good Marshall team, very, very close to the last minute. Miami of Ohio was undefeated and Mercyhurst was beating those guys with a minute to go. So, they certainly had our respect. (Mercyhurst head coach (Gary) Manchel’s been there a long time. He’s done a great job. I think they finished third in their league last year and they’ll be right in the mix of that [this year].

"I thought our defensive activity on the ball, getting deflections, disrupting what they were trying to do offensively was really good. Most of the night, there was one little stretch in the first half where I thought it slipped a little bit, we had a little lack of communication, we lost (senior guard Bernie) Blunt, number four, their best player, and he made us pay. Kind of went on a 10-0 personal run but we were able to steady that and finish the first half right. I thought as the game went on our communication level was really high on our switches and did just enough to finish the game the right way."

Freshman guard Amir Jenkins scoring a season-high 10 points

"He’s a good listener. He listens to instruction, and he has the maturity and the ability to process what he’s being asked to do and go do it, so it starts with that. He’s got an incredible work ethic. He’s always in the gym, like most of our guys are. And he likes to compete. He’s getting more comfortable. Again, you’re talking about a guy that was not here for the summer. He kind of got crashed coursed in the fall. He’s a good player, he’s got a great heart, and he plays to win – he’s a competitor."

Holding Mercyhurst to 38 points the lowest since 2017 (Coppin State)

"I thought our attention to detail was good. Our communication was good. We communicated. We were switching a lot, and so obviously, you're going to be guarding different people. I think in the first half, we didn't communicate clearly enough. If I was switching off a driver, maybe now I'm switching on to a shooter, and we lost those guys. I thought as the game went on, we did a better job of communicating that clearly, and they were in really good actions and put you in some difficult situations that we were able to kind of switch everything, level them off and keep the ball out of the paint. Did a good job on 11 (Mercyhurst sophomore guard Jake Lemelman). You know, he's a good player. Came in and averaged about 13 (points) a game, and Blunt averaged about 16 (points) a game. Preseason, first team all-league, guard in their league. And you saw that one little stretch in the first half, when he got loose, he hurt us. We just did a good job on those two guys all night long."

Opening statement

Freshman guard Amir Jenkins scoring a season-high 10 points

Holding Mercyhurst to 38 points the lowest since 2017 (Coppin State)

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