West Virginia coach Ross Hodge wants to keep his options open when it comes to a secondary scorer.
The Mountaineers (8-4) have one more chance to find a sidekick for leading scorer Honor Huff before Big 12 play begins when they host Mississippi Valley State on Monday in Morgantown W. Va.
A catalyst for the West Virginia offense, Huff scored a season-high 24 points and drained five of 17 3-point attempts in an 89-88 double-overtime loss to Ohio State on Dec. 13. Huff (17.8 points per game) also leads the nation in made shots from behind the arc with 117 and is second in the country with 4.08 made threes per game.
A second scoring option has been elusive for the Mountaineers. In seven games, reserve guard Chance Moore (12.3 ppg) has provided a spark. Starting forward Brenen Lorient (10.9) has shown flashes of an inside-outside-game as well.
“Can we get to the point where we are consistently anticipating what we are going to get from each guy?” Hodge said. “Then, depending on who you are playing and what the matchup presents, maybe there’s a little fluctuation from night to night.”
The long break for finals gave West Virginia time to continue to work Moore, Jackson Fields and Amir Jenkins into the lineup.
“We got some much needed mental and physical rest coming off Saturday’s game,” Hodge said. “It also gave us the ability to focus on ourselves and get to do a lot of what we didn’t do in the fall, which is practice with our whole team.”
Meanwhile, Mississippi Valley State (1-11) has lost 10 straight games. The Delta Devils’ lone win came back on Nov. 5 when they rolled to a 97-61 victory against Mississippi University for Women. Junior guard Michael James (20.6 ppg) leads the Delta Devils in scoring.
“Michael has been a revelation for us on both ends of the floor,” Delta Devils coach George Ivory said. “He’s stepped into a leadership role right away, scoring in bunches and attacking the game with confidence we knew he had coming in.”
