The Monmouth Hawks and the West Virginia Mountaineers meet in college basketball action from the WVU Coliseum on Friday night.

Monmouth Comes Up Short Vs. George Mason

The Monmouth Hawks come into this one looking to rebound from a season-opening loss to George Mason last time out. Xander Rice led the Hawks with 21 points on 7 of 21 shooting with 3 threes and a team-high 4 assists with a pair of steals while Jack Collins added 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting with 4 threes as the only other double-digit scorer for Monmouth in the losing effort. Nikita Konstantynovskyi and Jaret Valencia each had a team-high 5 rebounds while Jakari Spence added 4 assists as well in the defeat. As a team, Monmouth shot 33.8% from the field, 36% from three and 66.7% from the foul line this season.

West Virginia Takes Down Missouri State

The West Virginia Mountaineers come into this one looking to build on their 67-59 win over Missouri State last time out. Quinn Slazinski led the way with 18 points along with 7 rebounds while Jesse Edwards added 13 points to match his team-high 13 rebounds for the double-double. Seth Wilson added 11 points including 3 threes to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for WVU in the win. Kobe Johnson added 8 points and a team-high 4 assists as well in the win. As a team, West Virginia shot 34.9% from the field, 33.3% from three and 80% from the foul line in the winning effort.

Chris’ Pick

I’m rolling with WVU here. It’s a decent number, but I still think the Mountaineers are the play, as long as they can avoid the dreadful start that they had against Missouri State. Monmouth hasn’t really improved much from the team that’s struggled their way through the last couple of seasons, and I just think that the defensive pressure from West Virginia in this matchup, on their home floor will likely end up being too much for the Hawks in this one. I’ll lay it and play it with West Virginia here.