Harlan Obioha improved his fitness in the offseason and has become an inside force for West Virginia.
There will be dueling big men working the paint when the Mountaineers host Lafayette on Monday in Morgantown, W. Va.
In a 71-49 win against 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 large man amongst large men. He has great feet, balance and hands and that’s a really good combination. He gets his position, doesn’t get off balance and if he can get the ball to his chin, he finishes it.”
Honor Huff leads the Mountaineers in scoring at 15.5 points per game. Brenen Lorient (13.8 points), Obioha (12) and Jasper Floyd (11.8) all score in double digits for West Virginia.
Lafayette (1-3) has dropped 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 racked up 19 points. But their big man, Shareef Jackson, whose father Marc Jackson starred at Temple before playing professionally in the NBA and overseas, added 13 points.
A 6-foot-8 freshman forward, Shareef Jackson said he’s noticed the margin for error when playing against college players is considerably less than high school. He’s averaged 10.3 points and five rebounds per game.
“I would really say that it’s not so much getting faster,” Jackson said. “It is the unexpected things (that are different). From high school to college, those moments (where the game is) 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 to the basket in half a second.’ In college it’s different. If you make a mistake you’ve got to respond quick or it’s a three, a basket, a dunk, any of those.”