WVU Ekes Out a Win Over George Mason in Charity Exhibition

The West Virginia Mountaineers unofficially tipped off the 2023-24 season Friday night with an 85-78 win over the George Mason Patriots in a charity exhibition game.

Syracuse transfer Jesse Edwards showed early on how important of a piece he is to this team in both a positive and negative manner. He came out of the gate with the first four points of the game for the Mountaineers but picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and had to be subbed out. West Virginia lacks depth in the frontcourt and it really shows when he leaves the floor.

Defensively, WVU did a poor job of staying in front of their man and because of it the Patriots got to the charity stripe time and time again. In the first half alone, George Mason went 15/17 from the free throw line. 

Quinn Slazinski breathed some life into West Virginia's offense notching nine points (two threes) in less than two minutes to give the Mountaineers a 27-22 lead. George Mason quickly erased that by going on a 13-2 run jumpstarted by Oklahoma State transfer Woody Newton. After falling behind by double digits, WVU closed the half with a 6-1 run, cutting the deficit to 44-39.

Four minutes into the second half, a scary situation unfolded as West Virginia forward Akok Akok collapsed on the floor while en route to the bench. Trainers and other medical personnel attended to Akok for roughly 15 minutes before loading him on a stretcher. The two teams agreed to delay the game for an extra five minutes before resuming play.

WVU cleaned a few things up defensively in terms of playing more careful with their hands and positioning, preventing the Patriots form getting to the line. The Mountaineers steadily climbed back in the game and eventually tied the game up on an alley-oop from Kriisa to Edwards. 

A few moments later, Slazinski put the Mountaineers up 72-71 with a pair of free throws. Seth Wilson laid in an easy bucket at the rim which was followed by eight consecutive points by Edwards, pushing the Mountaineers' lead out to 80-71. The Patriots cut the lead to four with 46 seconds remaining but WVU knocked down three free throws and Kobe Johnson slammed home a dunk to cap off the night.

West Virginia will begin regular season play on Monday, November 6th at home against Missouri State.

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