West Virginia 78, Old Dominion 60
West Virginia took its sizzling shooting south of the border Tuesday, and the Mountaineers overpowered Old Dominion 78-60 to reach the Riviera Division final of the Cancun Classic at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico.
The Mountaineers, who came in averaging 88.3 points per game on 50.6 percent shooting, connected at a 56 percent clip against the Monarchs to cruise to their fourth straight victory.
West Virginia (5-1) will play the winner of Tuesday night's Wisconsin-Saint Louis contest in the Riviera Division title game Wednesday.
Mountaineers guard Eron Harris, the Big 12 scoring leader, led the way with 19 points. Guard Juwan Staten had 13 points and nine assists. Guard Terry Henderson added 14 points, and forward Devin Williams had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Harris also had three of West Virginia's eight 3-pointers.
Guard Aaron Bacote scored 20 points and guard Dimitri Batten added 14 for the Monarchs (4-2), who were playing their first game away from home. The loss snapped Old Dominion's four-game winning streak. The Monarchs will play in the third-place game Wednesday.
West Virginia expanded a 12-point halftime lead to 20 with 14:06 remaining and coasted home.
The Monarchs shot 39 percent from the field and made just nine of 22 free throws.
Henderson and Staten hit 3-pointers to shut off an Old Dominion rally, and the Mountaineers took a 36-24 lead into halftime.
The Monarchs cut a 13-point deficit to three before the Mountaineers went on a 10-1 run over the final 1:53.
Staten led all scorers with nine first-half points. The Mountaineers shot 50 percent from the field before the break.
Bacote led Old Dominion with eight first-half points, The Monarchs made only 33 percent of their field-goal attempts before intermission. They were 3-for-13 from the free-throw line and committed 10 turnovers in the half. Old Dominion came in averaging 10 turnovers per game.
NOTES: West Virginia made its first appearance in a regular-season game outside the United States or Puerto Rico in program history. ... The Cancun Challenge uses an eight-team, four-game format, with each team playing two games stateside before heading to Mexico. The Monarchs and Mountaineers both beat Presbyterian and Georgia Southern last week in the U.S. portion. ... Bowling Green will face Oral Roberts for the Mayan Division championship on Wednesday.
