MSU shoots past Ohio Valley 112-82
By Dave Morrison, Sports Editor, The Register-Herald
Mountain State coach Bob Bolen congratulated Alvin Mitchell after the Cougars' 112-82 win over Ohio Valley Thursday night.
Then he had a question for the Cincinnati transfer.
"What did you shoot from three (point range) in the second half?" Bolen asked.
"I don't know, coach," Mitchell asked.
"Three-for-three," Bolen told him.
Call it the ever-evolving world of Alvin Mitchell.
Despite coming from the Big East with a little extra baggage, Mitchell is trying his flat-best to be teammate Alvin Mitchell, not ex-Division I prima donna.
"Due to my situation, I have to prove to people that I am a capable player and a responsible teammate," Mitchell said after scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the Cougars victory. "I can't go around with a big head because I scored a few points. The only number I worry about is the number of wins we get and proving I can be a good teammate."
If he keeps contributing the way he did Thursday, that won't be a problem.
"Alvin shot the ball well," Bolen said of Mitchell, who was 5-of-6 from three-point range on the night. "He is a shooter and he caught fire a little bit tonight."
"He's a guy we didn't really know a lot about," Ohio Valley coach Mike Snell said. "We didn't have him on our scouting report, but he was a good shooter.
"The thing about Mountain State is they always have a lot of size. I looked at the roster this year and they're bigger than an NBA team across the board."
And one of those big men, Nick Aldridge, led the Cougars with 22 points and 10 rebounds, giving him back-to-back double-doubles to start the season.
"He's hard to guard," Snell said. "Some of those shots he made I'm not sure we could have done much more than what we did."
In fact, the Cougars got scoring from everywhere, as five players tallied double figures.
Winston Robinson came off the bench to pour in 16, point guard Barry Wellington had 15 (as well as six rebounds and six assists) and Andrew Lee had 10.
Bolen was especially pleased with the play of Robinson.
"He scored well, but I thought what Winston really gave us was a lift on defense in the second half," said Bolen, who started Robinson at the outset of the second half.
The game also marked the MSU debut of 7-foot-8 Paul Sturgiss. He finished with eight points, five rebounds and four blocked shots in about 10 minutes of action. He even had a slam dunk late in the game off a nice entry pass from Mundrell Young.
"I thought he played well," Bolen said.
"We still have a lot to work on," Mitchell said. "We can improve defensively. I just want to do what I can to help the team. If I'm deflecting the ball or I'm getting a rebound, it's because I'm feeding off the energy of my teammates."
The Cougars return to the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Saturday, hosting Maryland Bible College at 2 p.m. The game has been moved up two hours because of Halloween.
Reprinted by permission
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