WVU basketball will beat SFA

Two defensive masters are going at it in the NCAA Tournament. The WVU basketball team and Stephen F. Austin sport the top two defenses in the college game.

The No.3 seed Mountaineers and No. 14 Lumberjacks will present an interesting first round match up, but West Virginia will win on Friday night.

Both teams will press hard and will play in-your-face defense. The Mountaineers have gained more national notoriety for this, but the Lumberjacks are doing something right, as well.

The Lumberjacks won the Southland Conference title, with a dominating 82-60 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi. SFA has cruised through its conference play pretty handily over the years.

This year, the Lumberjacks went 27-5 and they are currently on a 20-game winning streak.

So, they are due for a loss. And, that’s what they’ll get.

While SFA has such a strong full-court defense, they will lose the game inside.

SFA doesn’t have the big men to stop Devin Williams, who is coming off the best game of his career against Kansas in the Big 12 Championship.

Williams, along with Jonathan Holton, Elijah Macon and the strong inside-out game of Nathan Adrian will stifle the Lumberjacks.

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If the Mountaineers are to make it far in this year’s tournament, they will also need contributions from their guards. Jaysean Paige, who has been the team’s leading scorer all season long, needs to put in more than his 13 points per game average.

Then, point guard Jevon Carter needs to duplicate his offensive outburst that we saw against Oklahoma. Carter poured in a team-high 26 points, including eight 3-pointers. But, the game prior against TCU, Carter was held scoreless.

Against SFA, though, Paige and Carter can sag off a bit. The Mountaineers need to get the ball to Williams and let him do the work inside.

Prediction: WVU 78, SFA 63.

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