MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Kevin Jones scored 24 points to lead four West Virginia players in double figures and the Mountaineers led wire-to-wire in routing Rutgers 84-60 Saturday.
Darryl “Truck” Bryant added 18 points, Deniz Kilicli 14 and Jabarie Hines 11 as West Virginia (13-5, 4-2 Big East) defeated Rutgers for the ninth straight time. The Mountaineers had dominated the Scarlet Knights by 21 points just 10 days ago.
Jones also grabbed 14 rebounds to accomplish his 12th double-double of the season. Bryant has scored in double figures in every game except Monday’s loss at Connecticut.
Rutgers was coming off back-to-back victories over Connecticut at home and Pittsburgh on the road.
The Mountaineers connected on 46.6 percent of their field goals (27 of 58) as their pressure defense forced 19 turnovers from the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers (10-8, 2-3), which trailed 14-4 by the 15:27 mark and 48-22 at halftime, shot just 39.7 percent (23 of 58) from the floor.
Myles Mack led the Scarlet Knights with 15 points.
Rutgers’ leading scorer Eli Carter, who was averaging about 14 points per game, was held to six points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field.
After scoring 11 straight points to take its 14-4 lead, West Virginia expanded its margin to 28-12 on a layup by Gary Browne.
Browne started with the ball at the top of the key, tried to force a layup in the paint, but picked up the loose ball and drove again for a score.
West Virginia, which shot 46.5 percent from the field coming into the game, was good on 56.7 percent of its shots in the first half (17 of 30). Fourteen of the Mountaineers’ points came off 11 turnovers by Rutgers.
