Josh Eilert discusses second half adjustments vs. Bellarmine

The West Virginia basketball team is taking on the Bellarmine Knights on Sunday night. The Mountaineers lead 36-30 at halftime. Heading into the break, WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert discussed the second half adjustments he wanted to see out of his team.

“We’ve gotta control this game and this pace with our offense. If our offense isn’t clean and we’re trying to matchup in transition and all those shooters are running down the floor. And he’s pushing the pace. It’s gonna be tough. So we’ve gotta control our game with our offense. And we can’t give them second shots. The second shots are killing us,” Eilert said to the ESPN+ broadcast crew.

The Knights gave the Mountaineers plenty of problems and that continued into the second half. Bellarmine took the lead, 45-44 with 11:09 remaining in the game.

Bellarmine refused to go away, but West Virginia found a way to prevail on Sunday, 62-58. WVU big man Jesse Edwards tallied his third double-double in six games, racking up 17 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in the win.

The Mountaineers also got a big game from Quinn Slazinski, who stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Bellarmine got a stellar performance from Peter Suder, who poured in 19 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out five assists in the losing effort. The Knights also got a solid performance from Bash Wieland off the bench. He stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, four rebounds, and two assists.

While the Bellarmine Knights are just 2-5 overall, they are a very fundamentally sound basketball team. There is a YouTube video from two years ago titled, “The Team That Doesn’t Dribble.” It demonstrates their head coach’s (Scott Davenport) philosophy of sharing the basketball. Last November, the Knights came out and stunned the Louisville Cardinals with a 67-66 win in the season-opener. Bash Wieland dumped in 13 points in that one. The Knights also got 21 points from Garrett Tipton.

Speaking of Louisville, Bellarmine will face the Cardinals next. That game is set for Wednesday. Louisville has struggled early in the 2023 season, and they currently sit at 3-3 overall. They nearly defeated Texas in an 81-80 loss, but they also barely squeaked by New Mexico State in a 90-84 win in overtime.

West Virginia will host St. John’s on Friday in a Big East-Big 12 clash.