CHARLESTON, S.C. — Taz Sherman scored a career-high 27 points to lead West Virginia to an 87-68 victory over Elon on Thursday night in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic, moving Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins further up on the all-time wins list.
Huggins earned his 903rd career victory, passing Bob Knight all-time among Division I coaches and tying Roy Williams, who retired in April with the fourth-most wins.
Jim Calhoun, who retired Thursday from Division III St. Joseph and won three national titles at UConn, is third with 920 career wins.
West Virginia (3-0) plays Friday in the semifinals against Marquette.
The Mountaineers never trailed and used a 14-2 run to make it 35-20 with 6:25 left in the first half, but Elon — which hadn’t attempted a free throw up to that point — made 10 of 13 foul shots during a 14-4 spurt to cut its deficit to five. However, West Virginia’s Isaiah Cottrell hit two free throws to make it 44-37 at halftime, and the Phoenix got no closer.
Sean McNeil added 16 points for West Virginia (3-0).
Torrence Watson led Elon (2-2) with 15 points. Hunter McIntosh added 13, and Darius Burford scored 12.
The Phoenix plays Mississippi in the loser’s bracket on Friday.
West Virginia shot 30 of 58 (52%) overall and improved to 80-5 under Huggins when shooting 50% or better from the field.
