MORGANTOWN — Ross Hodge was presented with the other side of the coin Sunday.

It’s a side the first-year WVU men’s basketball coach hopes he doesn’t have to deal with too much.

“I know we’re not going to hit 20 threes every game,” he said following the Mountaineers’ 80-54 exhibition win against Wheeling University inside the Hope Coliseum. “That would be nice. It would make my job a lot easier.”

It didn’t happen against the Cardinals, but that was exactly the news that came out a week ago from WVU’s closed-door scrimmage against Maryland.

In that scrimmage, WVU guards Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff lit up the scoreboard. Against Wheeling, neither got going early and the duo didn’t even play on the floor together all that much.

“That was nothing planned out,” Hodge said. “We knew we were going to play a lot of guys, so we didn’t want to stretch people’s minutes super far. It was just organically the way the game played out.”

Against Maryland, Huff and Eaglestaff combined for 54 points. Against Wheeling, they combined for 11 points on 3 of 14 shooting.

Which set up that other side of the coin for Hodge and the Mountaineers, who open up the regular season on Nov. 4 against Mount St. Mary’s. Against Wheeling, WVU did its damage down low with Harlan Obioha going for 19 points and eight rebounds, while Brenen Lorient added 14 points on 7 of 9 shooting.

In Hodge’s words, it’s a pick-your-poison type situation.

Either teams focus on Huff and Eaglestaff and drag its defense out to the two shooters or the defense packs it in to keep Lorient and Obioha in check around the basket.

“If you choose to pay special attention to (Huff and Eaglestaff), you’re going to play our forwards one-on-one,” Hodge said. “Maryland, they double-teamed the post. I think you do get into that, you have to pick your poison a little bit.”

WVU had a 44-14 scoring advantage in the paint, which was to be expected against a Division II school. Obioha, a 7-footer who weighs in at around 265 pounds, did much of his damage scoring on offensive rebounds.

“I think coming into the season, coach has wanted me to be more aggressive, so that played a part in it,” Obioha said of his game. “It was also knowing that someone had to step up a little and put some points on the board.”

Hodge was asked how much he could take from Obioha’s performance – his 19 points came in 19 minutes of action – considering Obioha’s size advantage against the smaller Cardinals.

“He’s a large human being,” Hodge shot back. “He’s going to have an advantage most nights. He’s a large man amongst large men. He’s such a large target down there. To me, it gives you the ultimate what are you going to do when the ball is thrown in there to him? Are you going to dig it out? Are you going to double it?

“You have to make a choice. More often than not, if you choose to guard him one-on-one, he’s either going to score it or get fouled.”

WVU’s largest lead was 30 points and the only real drama came at the start of the second half, when the Cardinals scored seven of the half’s first nine points to get within 43-28, forcing Hodge to call a timeout.

“The only thing (Hodge) mentioned at halftime – he didn’t mention anything about offense or defense – but he said, ‘Don’t come out slow.’ That was his message,” Lorient said. “Obviously, they came out and hit some threes, so he had to call timeout. He told us he was going to do that if it happened.”

Huff, Jasper Floyd and Chance Moore all added eight points for the Mountaineers. Moore must now sit out the first five games of the regular season to meet NCAA eligibility requirements. Freshman Jayden Forysythe came off the bench in the final minutes and nailed three 3-pointers for nine points.

Wheeling head coach Chris Richardson played a rotation of 16 players with 14 players getting at least five minutes of action. Ayden Goll and Kris English led the Cardinals with nine points, while Jalen Wenger and Caleb Murray each added eight.

Note

WVU freshman Amir Jenkins played the game with his left shoulder wrapped in a brace.

“He’s banged up a little bit,” Hodge said. “It’s something he’s going to play with and he’ll have to wear it when he plays.”