College basketball
Quinn Slazinski scored 18 points, Jesse Edwards had 13 points and 13 rebounds, and West Virginia overcame a terrible start to beat Missouri State 67-59 in their season opener Monday night.
Seth Wilson scored all 11 of his points in the second half for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers led 57-46 before Missouri State went on an 8-0 run. Chance Moore scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left to pull the Bears within 61-59. But Missouri State didn’t score again.
Alston Mason added 15 points for Missouri State.
West Virginia jumped ahead 15-4 to open the game, then went the final 14 minutes of the half without a field goal, missing 21 straight shots to trail 30-24 at halftime.
West Virginia finally moved on from a tumultuous offseason in which coach Bob Huggins received a three-game suspension for using a homophobic slur on a Cincinnati radio station in May. Huggins resigned a month later following a June drunken driving arrest. Josh Eilert was named interim coach and the roster underwent a shakeup with only four players returning from last season’s roster.
The NCAA denied waivers for two players to play immediately, and Eilert kicked Jose Perez off the team in an academic disagreement. Forward Akok Akok continues to recuperate after collapsing during an Oct. 27 exhibition game. Guard Kerr Kriisa was suspended for nine games on Oct. 31 for accepting impermissible benefits when he was at Arizona.
West Virginia had just eight scholarship players available for Monday’s game.
Purdue, 98-45
No. 3 Purdue spent eight long months trying to flush the bitter taste from last year’s shocking first-round NCAA Tournament exit.
When their chance finally arrived Monday, the Boilermakers sent a quick, strong message: They’re back and they might be even better than last year’s Big Ten regular season and tourney champs.
Zach Edey opened the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds, Camden Heide added 13 points and Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer combined for half of the 16 3-pointers Monday night, helping No. 3 Purdue rout Samford 98-45.
“I think we came out in the first half really well. Defensively, I think we gave up four points in the first 10 minutes,” Edey said after posting his 40th career double-double. “I think we played with great energy and we played with an edge.”
The Boilermakers tied a school record with their 25th consecutive regular season win over a non-conference foe as Smith and Loyer each finished with 12 points.
Edey, last season’s reigning national player of the year, also had four of the team’s 10 blocks on college basketball’s opening night and didn’t attempt a shot for the first 11 1/2 minutes.
Jaden Campbell scored 11 points and Rylan Jones added eight to lead Samford. But in Purdue’s first game since last season’s embarrassing first-round NCAA Tournament exit against 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, it was no contest.
Villanova, 90-63
Eric Dixon and Tyler Burton each scored 15 points to lead No. 22 Villanova to a 90-63 win over American in their season opener.
The Wildcats led by as many as 32 in the first game of what they expect to turn into a bounce-back season after a 17-17 finish in coach Kyle Neptune’s first year.
Princeton, 68-61
Matt Allocco scored 21 points, Xaivian Lee added 18 and together scored the final 15 points of the game to secure Princeton’s 68-61 win over Rutgers in a season-opener.