West Virginia Meets No. 24 Purdue in the Opening Round of the PK85

The Mountaineers take on their first ranked opponent of the season in the PK85 Invitational

The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-0) open the PK85 Invitation against the No. 24 Purdue Boilermakers (3-0) on Thanksgiving night inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum at 10:00 EST with the action broadcasting on ESPN2.

The Boilermakers began the season, notching wins over Milwaukee, Austin Peay and Marquette. Seven-foot-four-inch center Zach Edey is averaging a double-double with a team-leading 20.7 point and 13.7 points per game.

The junior produced seven double doubles during Big Ten play a season ago, including the semifinals and finals of the Big Ten Championship. WVU head coach Bob Huggins attributes Edey’s success to Purdue’s head coach Matt Painter and his staff.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of hard work that Matt and his guys put into helping him,” said Huggins. “I saw him when he first signed at Purdue, and he’s come a long, long way but he’s always had great hands and he’s seven-four, but they’ve done a terrific job with him.”

Freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer combine for 21.0 points and 4.7 assists per game with Smith swiping a team-best 2.7 seven steals per game.

Purdue is coming off a 75-70 win over Marquette on Tuesday. The Boilermakers trailed by nine with 10 minutes remaining in the game before producing a 14-4 to take their first lead since the 2:39 mark of the first half. Purdue extended its leads to nine with 47 seconds left in the game but two missed front ends of a one and one opened the door for Marquette to get back within three with eight seconds remaining. However, junior guard Ethan Morton hit both his free throws to close extend the lead to five as Purdue held on for the five-point lead.

I thought it was really good for us in the Marquette game on how we won even though you would like to line it up better,” said Painter. Just the fact we were down showed some toughness and hang in there and make some plays necessary to win. You’d still like to make your free throws to close out the game, but you can learn from that.”

West Virginia has yet to be tested by any opponent, winning by an average margin of 23.8 points.

There are four Mountaineers averaging double figures with guard Erik Stevenson leading the way, averaging 14.0 points per game, followed by forward Tre Mitchell’s 13.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

Despite West Virginia’s success, Huggins is looking for improvement, especially on the defensive end.

“We’ve got to guard better,” he said. “We really haven’t guarded very well. We’ve got to guard a whole lot better.”

With West Virginia winning comfortably in the first four games, Huggins is eager to see what his Mountaineers can do against the coemption in the PK 85 field and is ready to add to his arsenal.

“There’s some more things that we like to be able to get into the arsenal and this I think is a good opportunity to see how the things that we’re trying to explore a little bit, how they work against quality people.”

West Virginia is 1-7 all-time versus Purdue. 

You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us Twitter:

Facebook - @MountaineersNow

Twitter - @MountaineersNow and Christopher Hall @WVHallBilly