West Virginia vs. San Diego State

Before West Virginia left for its trip to Las Vegas, head coach Bob Huggins said his team would see better competition in the two games, after winning the first four of the season, by an average of 38 points. Williams had his way against the Spiders frontcourt, hitting 9 of 11 from the field, while sinking 5 of 8 from the free-throw line. Freshman forward Zylan Cheatham looks to build on his breakout performance from Thursday, when he set career highs with 13 points and 10 rebounds and helped neutralize talented Cal freshman Jaylen Brown. It was Williams’ fifth consecutive double-double to open the season. He claimed MVP honors and was joined by Miles and Carter on the all-tournament team.

Richmond came out strong in the second half, putting together a number of impressive runs.

Joining Iowa State and Oklahoma as the lone undefeated teams in the Big 12, West Virginia won the event despite making only 6-of-26 from 3-point range over two nights. However, West Virginia responded each time and UR was never able to tie or take the lead. With the lead at 5 at 52-47 with 7:30 to go, Devin Williams picked up a technical foul after looking for an and-one (rightfully so, it should have been a foul.) There were several missed calls in the second half.

On Friday, West Virginia will face the victor of the Cal/SDSU game later on tonight for the championship.

Huggins had to shuffle five players – Williams, Paige, Adrian, Holton and Esa Ahmad – in and out the lineup because of foul trouble.

For the Mountaineers, they went into the game against Richmond out rebounding opponents by 14, too. Coach Chris Mooney has relied heavily on his veterans early but would like to see continued growth from freshmen guards Khwan Fore, Jesse Pistokache and Julius Johnson, who combined for two points against the Mountaineers.ABOUT CALIFORNIA (4-1): After rolling to home wins over Rice, UC Santa Barbara, East Carolina and Sam Houston State, the Golden Bears led by as many 15 early in the second half Thursday before San Diego State closed the game with a 42-13 run.

The West Virginia basketball team clinched the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational last night with a dominating 72-50 win over San Diego State.