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Nov 27, 2023 By Bob Hertzel 5 min read

MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia Coliseum is getting to be an echo chamber, something it usually is with the crowd roaring at basketball games, but this year it’s different.

This may sound odd, but it’s different because every night things are the same.

Every game, no matter the opponent, is a battle … a battle with that opponent and a battle within the Mountaineers themselves as they strive to reach their potential, something made more and more difficult because they are shorthanded in personnel.

It’s never easy for the Mountaineers and Sunday night’s 62-58 victory over Bellarmine was no different.

In fact, with 4:05 to go, WVU held a tenuous 53-51 lead before freshman Ofri Naveh, making his second start in his first year after joining the team this summer from his native Israel, where he was a member of the national team, canned a 3-pointer.

They should have stopped the game and presented him with the ball, for making a 3-point shot has become probably the biggest deficiency this team has and until they get it fixed nothing will be easy.

In this game, the Mountaineers made but 3 of 16 from 3-point range, 2 from Naveh and Quinn Slazinski.

Beside those two, WVU was 0-for-7. And Slazinski was hardly a sniper from outside going 1 for 6.

This has made life difficult inside for the Mountaineers main man, Syracuse transfer Jesse Edwards, who is drawing double teams every time down the floor.

This was a game in which he had a lot of difficulty, even though he finished with a solid double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds.

“I was mad at myself, for sure,” Edwards said when asked about it after the game. “Still am. I was doing stuff I don’t usually do. I have to take care of the ball better than that, but it happened so you keep playing and make sure you focus on the next play. That’s what I tried to do and the guys helped me. We support each other.”

During the timeout when he was removed from the game, he spent a good deal of talking with assistant coach Da’Sean Butler, who handles the big men, and he was trying to bring him back into being himself.

If someone outside does not get a hot hand from 3 and keep opponents from dropping someone in on him whenever he gets into position to get the ball, WVU’s offense will be impotent.

“[Making 3s] should take a lot of pressure off him. Look at the numbers,” Eilert said. “They’re scouting us and they might even start bringing triple teams down if we can’t make a shot. They are going to throw as many bodies as they can if we can’t find some scoring threats. It can’t be just Quinn and Jesse as your only scoring threats.”

That was why Naveh’s 3 was more meaningful than just 3 points.

Eilert noted that Naveh is still trying to feel his way into the rotation and that he isn’t fully in tune yet, but that he has the potential to provide a lot of help for Edwards.

“Ofri made some mental mistakes and tried to force the action sometimes, so he wasn’t exactly perfect tonight by any means,” Eilert said. “But he hit a big shot for us down the stretch. For a team that’s struggling to put the ball in the hole from the perimeter, that was as critical as any shot all night.

“We were 3 for 16 (from 3) and I want the guys to take good shots, but you have to be really good at figuring out what a good shot is and what isn’t. You come down from guarding for 30 seconds and got Seth coming down and you take one at the top of the key, that’s not a good shot.

“They turned down some pretty good ones. I’m not trying to kill their confidence. I want guys to play their role and shoot the ball but they have to take those shots out of the offense we’re running and take efficient shots where we can control the pace of the game by making them guard.

“You can tell by our offensive rebounding numbers we didn’t take all that good of shots. It’s easier to rebound when you are playing out of your offense and taking good shots out of your offense. You are in position. So, 7 offensive rebounds on 39 missed shots, that’s not it. You have to be better than that.”

Naveh’s shot provided the juice for the stretch run. Edwards’ game came together and Bellarmine was facing more pressure from the defense and lost its shooting eye, finishing the game just 33.8% from the floor.

And, fittingly enough, Edwards finished it off with a power dunk.

“That made me feel good,” he said. “I don’t think I had a dunk all game before that.”

Slazinski finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, Naveh had 10 points and 6 boards, and Kobe Johnson contributed 13 points.

Peter Suder led Bellarmine (2-5) with 19 points.

The Mountaineers are now 3-3 and play next on Friday when St. John’s and Rick Pitino come to town on the Big 12-Big East Challenge.