Harlan Obioha improved his fitness during the offseason and became an interior force for West Virginia.
There will be some dueling big men working the paint when the Mountaineers host Lafayette on Monday in Morgantown, West Virginia.
In a 71-49 win over Pitt on Thursday, the 7-foot Obioha led West Virginia (4-0) with 19 points and converted 8 of 9 field goal attempts.
“We challenged him in the offseason,” West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said. “He’s a big man among big men. He’s got great feet, balance and hands and it’s a really good combination. He gets his position, doesn’t lose his balance and if he can get the ball up to his chin, he finishes it.”
Honor Huff leads the Mountaineers with 15.5 points per game. Brenen Lorient (13.8 points), Obioha (12) and Jasper Floyd (11.8) all score in double figures for West Virginia.
Lafayette (1-3) has lost two straight games. The latest setback was a 97-78 home loss to Cornell on Thursday.
The Leopards were led in scoring by Caleb Williams, who had 19 points. But their big man, Shareef Jackson, whose father Marc Jackson played at Temple before playing professionally in the NBA and overseas, added 13 points.
Shareef Jackson, a 6-foot-8 freshman forward, said he noticed the margin for error when playing college players was considerably less than in high school. He averages 10.3 points and five rebounds per game.
“I would definitely say things are not speeding up that much,” Jackson said. “It’s the unexpected things (that are different). From high school to college, those moments (where the game goes) at the same speed. … But that split second where a guy makes a move or a guy makes a mistake, that’s where the difference is. In high school, they’re fast but they’re not, ‘I’m at the basket in half a second.’ In college, it’s different. If you make a mistake, you have to react quickly, otherwise it’s a three, a basket, a dunk, whatever.”
–Field level media
