Nov 16, 2014 3 min read

Two players who were unavailable a year ago helped lead West Virginia to its second straight victory in 72 hours Sunday as the Mountaineers bested Lafayette 83-56 in a non-conference game.

Jonathan Holton had 18 points and 15 rebounds, while Jaysean Paige had 16 points, including three 3-point shots in the Mountaineers’ cause. Sophomore Devin Williams added 15 points and 11 rebounds, his second straight double-double of the season and the 10th in his two-year career. Juwan Staten added 10 tallies.

Dan Trist led the Leopards with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Lafayette had bested Robert Morris on the road 77-50 Friday night.

The same evening West Virginia knocked off Monmouth 64-54, but the Mountaineers were not without fault. They shot 26.1 percent from the field, but rebounded literally with 49 boards, including 30 on the offensive end.

Against Lafayette, the latter two stats were up to the totals of Friday against the visiting Hawks, but the Mountaineers were shaky early from the field.

Paige, a resident of Jamestown, N.Y., but a transfer from Moberly Area Community College, helped to change that. He knocked in two straight 3-pointers to expand the Mountaineers’ lead to 16-10 with 8:47 remaining in the first half.

Meanwhile, Holton, who sat out last year after transferring from Palm Beach State Community College, was the game’s leading rebounder.

“That’s what we expected. He slowed down. He was so fired up on Friday. I think we got more under control. He’s capable of being a whole lot better than that,” said WVU coach Bob Huggins.

Williams picked up where he left off in West Virginia’s previous game. Then he scored 15 and hauled down as many rebounds

With 11:47 remaining in the first half, West Virginia was shooting only 17 percent on 18 field goal attempts. To that point, it had out-rebounded the shorter Leopards 16-4. Its advantage on the offensive end was 10-0.

Leading 10-7, Paige knocked down the first of two 3’s with 9:21 showing. He answered a triple by Lafayette’s Joey Ptasinski with his second straight long bomb for the six-point advantage. Paige then made a steal and the ball got to Holton, who raced down the floor for a lay-up and an eight-point Mountaineer lead with 8:39 showing.

Penn State 73, Fordham 54: D.J. Newbill scored 18 points, Shep Garner added 12 on four 3-pointers and Penn State beat Fordham 73-54.

Brandon Taylor and John Johnson each scored 11 as Penn State (2-0) sank 25 of 53 field-goal attempts and 7 of 18 3-pointers.

The Lions held the Rams (1-1) to 17-of-55 shooting, including just 8-of-26 3-pointers.

Nemanja Zarkovic scored 14 points for Fordham and Chris Sengfelder added 10.

The Nittany Lions won the rebounding battle (40-37) and held the Rams’ Eric Paschall to just seven points. Paschall, who scored 31 against New York Institute of Technology Friday night, fouled out with 12:56 remaining.

Ross Travis had nine rebounds and eight points for Penn State.

North Carolina 103, Robert Morris 59: Brice Johnson scored 23 points while Kennedy Meeks had 21 to help No. 6 North Carolina beat Robert Morris 103-59.

Marcus Paige added 15 for the Tar Heels (2-0), who for the second straight game jumped to a quick double-digit lead and stayed in control the rest of the way.

UNC scored the first 12 points, led by 18 at halftime then ran off the first 11 after the break to blow the game open.