JEREMY CURTIS
Tribune Correspondent

MORGANTOWN - West Virginia University and Longwood University met on the basketball court for the first time, Thursday night and the Mountaineers beat the Lancers, 86-54, at the WVU Coliseum.
Freshman guard Darryl Bryant led all Mountaineer scorers with 16 points, as WVU improved to 2-0 on the season. Bryant finished the game with five rebounds, three assists and a steal.
“Every game that goes by, I’m starting to feel more comfortable,” said Bryant.
Despite the 32-point win, WVU head coach Bob Huggins wasn’t all pleased with his team’s performance.
“I think we were flat,” he said.
WVU missed 15 free throws in the game (29-44) and committed 23 turnovers to Longwood’s 21 turnovers.
“We just rarely miss that many free throws,” said Huggins. “That’s mental.”
“We’ve got a lot of work to do as far as taking care of the ball,” said WVU’s Da’Sean Butler.
“When you turn the ball over, you don’t have any rhythm on offense. It didn’t help us individual-wise and it didn’t help us as a  eam,” said guard Joe Mazzulla.
“We kind of hold ourselves to around 10 turnovers a game and we definitely let ourselves down.”
However, the Mountaineers maintained a 30-point lead for most of the contest and out-rebounded Longwood, 54-27.
“I know we did well in rebounding against them, but there are a lot of other teams that are infinitely bigger than they are in the Big East,” Butler said.
“I think when you rant and rave, like I have done at times — you can’t do that all the time. After a while, you’ve got to turn it off. They’ll listen,” said Huggins.
Dana Smith led all scorers in the game with 17 points for Longwood (2-2).
Six minutes into the game, freshman forward Devin Ebanks dunked the basketball off an assist from Mazzulla, giving WVU an 11-1 lead.
The Mountaineers never looked back from there.
WVU shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and had a commanding 43-19 advantage by halftime. Longwood was held to just 28 percent shooting in the opening half and was 0-5, from three-point range.
Just before halftime, Bryant got into rhythm and keyed a crowd-pleasing stretch-run. With a minute left before the break, Bryant hit a three-point basket, dunked the ball with one hand on a breakaway and had two steals and an assist.
“That energized me too,” Bryant said of his dunk. “I was hype myself.”
The Lancers played a better second half and were outscored 43-35, in that period.
Butler finished the game with 12 points, four rebounds and a steal for the Mountaineers, but turned the ball over five times.
Alex Ruoff contributed 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal, for WVU.
“They’re our two leaders. Those are the two guys that have been through the battles,” Huggins said.
All 13 Mountaineer players got into the game, as did all 12 Lancers.
Eleven different WVU players got into the scoring column.
The Mountaineers controlled the paint, outscoring the Lancers 32-16, near the basket.
The game was the first round of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Invitational.
WVU returns to action Tuesday, for the second game of the tournament, when it takes on Delaware State, at the Charleston Civic Center.
Next Friday, the Mountaineers will play Iowa in Las Vegas and next Saturday, will go up against the winner or loser of the Kansas State/Kentucky game.