Field Level Media
Mar 16, 2018
West Virginia guard Jevon Carter had 21 points and eight assists and Teddy Allen had 16 points when the fifth-seeded Mountaineers held off the Murray State Racers for a 85-68 victory in an NCAA tournament East Regional game at the Viejas Center in San Diego on Friday.
Terrell Miller Jr. had a season-high 27 points with five 3-pointers and added 17 rebounds and Ja Morant had 14 points for the Racers (26-7), who got only one field goal from leading scorer Jonathan Stark.
The loss snapped a 13-game winning streak for the Racers, who came in sporting the second longest streak in Division 1 behind Gonzaga's 15-gamer.
Carter, the two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, had six of the Mountaineers' nine steals. His steal and assist on a Logan Routt fast-break dunk capped a 7-0 run for a 58-45 lead with 11:58 remaining, and the Racers never pulled closer than 11 points.
Stark, the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament MVP, was 1-for-12 from the field and 1 of 10 on 3-pointers while being hounded by Carter and others. He was averaging 21.8 points a game and was the only active Division I player with 2,100 career points and 500 career assists. He spent his first two years at Tulane.
West Virginia will meet Marshall in an all-West Virginia second round game Sunday. The schools are just over 200 interstate miles apart with West Virginia in Morgantown and Marshall in Huntington.
Ahmad's 3-pointer gave the Mountaineers a 32-22 lead late in the first half, and he scored seven points in the final three minutes for a 38-29 halftime edge. Stark and Miller scored the Racers' final 14 points of the half.
--Field Level Media