Nov. 9—MORGANTOWN — Brenen Lorient pulled off the ultimate double-take Sunday.
Or maybe it was simply the 6-foot-9 forward adding more to his game to force West Virginia’s future opponents to spend more time on scouting reports.
In any case, Lorient was already the Mountaineers’ leading rebounder and shot blocker. In WVU’s 69-47 win against Lehigh inside the Hope Coliseum, Lorient added 3-point specialist to his resum é, too.
He missed his first attempt from behind the arc, but then didn’t miss again. In all, Lorient was 3 for 4 from 3-point range, 11 of 15 from the field and finished with a career-high 26 points.
BOX SCORE “My teammates helped me out a lot tonight and coach (Ross Hodge) called some really good sets, ” Lorient said. “It was just a blessing to be able to make the shots I did today.”
There is a short story that goes behind Lorient’s 3-point shot. It begins with him shooting 48 % from behind the arc last season at North Texas, but that came on only 23 attempts.
In between his transfer from North Texas to WVU, Lorient said he spent part of his summer watching NBA players working out and getting a feel for how bigger guys developed a long-range game.
That didn’t seem to translate over his first two games at WVU, in which he didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer. That all changed against the Mountain Hawks.
“My first two games, I didn’t get that many opportunities to be out on the wing stretching the floor, ” said Lorient, who also added seven rebounds and three steals against Lehigh. “Today, they were able to find me on the outside.”
Hodge, who also coached Lorient at North Texas last season, said he’s all in favor of Lorient showing off the side to his game.
“We’ve been talking a little bit about increasing his volume from there, ” Hodge said. “He’s also such an unselfish player that he doesn’t force things. The game kind of opened up for him in that regard today. When he’s making those, it increases the space for everybody else.”
The Mountaineers (3-0) picked up its first blowout of Hodge’s tenure, beginning the game on a 16-2 run and extending their lead to as many as 27 before the half.
The reason ? WVU’s defense put forth its best defensive effort. The Mountain Hawks (1-2) didn’t reach double figures until Nasir Whitlock’s bucket with 4:57 remaining in the first half.
By that time, Lorient already had 13 points and a couple of 3-pointers in his hip pocket.
“I thought the first 15 minutes were probably the best 15 minutes of defensive basketball we’ve played since we’ve been together, ” Hodge said.
About the only real drama came early in the second half, after Lehigh guard Josh Ingram drove through the lane and dunked it. WVU still led, 46-27, but Hodge was furious as he called a timeout and then spent part of that timeout getting in the faces of his players.
“It’s been a big emphasis for us to come out of halves better, ” said WVU center Harlan Obioha, who added 12 points and eight rebounds. “We haven’t, yet, come out after halftime like we really wanted to. That was all (Hodge) talked about in the locker room. That was him just being a little frustrated in us not executing the game plan and not being locked into what we were supposed to be doing.”
WVU, which now has a few days to rest and prepare for rival Pitt (6 p.m. Thursday, Hope Coliseum), eventually responded by getting its lead back up to 23 points, before the game turned into an ugly display of bad passes, bad shots and some questionable defense down the stretch.
Lehigh, which lost to No. 2 Houston to begin its season, got as close as 58-44 with 6:46 remaining. Lorient nailed another 3-pointer with 4:01 left to make it 64-44, and that was about all she wrote.
Honor Huff added eight points for the Mountaineers and Jasper Floyd had seven points and four assists. The bigger story was Lehigh was held to just 34.8 % (16 of 46) shooting overall, while WVU came away with a 38-25 rebounding advantage, the first time this season WVU has had the edge on the glass.
