CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Despite the cold and the snow outside, inside the Charleston Civic Center was abuzz with excitement on Wednesday night as a capacity crowd of over 12,000 people watched as the West Virginia Mountaineers Men’s Basketball team defeated cross-state rival Marshall 87 - 76.

Powered by a fast start in the second half and a 22 point game from Guard Darryl Bryant, the Mountaineers defeated the Herd in a game that was never really close after the first seven minutes.

WVU led early in the game and only relinquished the lead to Marshall once. The first half was tight for the first six minutes and then the Mountaineers went on a run of 8 unanswered points to spread out the lead.

Marshall’s rebounding game was off tremendously un the first period with the Herd taking a drubbing on the offensive boards. Most of the period the HEd got only one shooting opportunity as the combination of Kevin Jones and Da’Sean Butler dominated the offensive boards.

Tyler Wilkerson, coming off of a big outing for Marshall against East Carolina was on fire for the Herd early but then gave way to Markel Humphrey. Both had six point first halves.

The start of the second half was delayed 15 minutes because of a shot-clock malfunction at one end of the court which many felt helped change the tempo of the game. In addition to causing both teams to have to wait on the court for what was almost the length of a second half-time, the clock on the other end had to be turned off as well since the Civic Center staff could not repair the other. This led to the shot timing being announced over the arena PA system for the entire second half, causing what some players felt was a distraction.

“It was like playing high school. No shot clock was weird.” said Humphrey after the game. “Hearing it over the loudspeaker was a little distracting because you were trying to pay attention to it and that caused some rushed shots.”

When play resume, West Virginia seemed to come out of the gate responding to the extra lay-off better. The Mountaineers, led by Darryl Bryant definetly caught the Herd off-guard.

Bryant was hot all night for the Mountaineers going 4 for 5 from the charity stipe in the first half and 11for 15 for the game from the line. He hit three three pointers including two big ones to start the second half that, coupled with one by Alex Ruoff, stole the momentum away from the Herd. Marshall Head Coach Donnie Jones said “Those three pointers at the beginning of the second half took the ind out of our sails. That put us down by 23 and that was hard to overcome.”

The rest of the way was a game of “catch-up” for the Herd who, despite lowering the lead at one point to six points, never fully recovered to the point where West Virginia was pressed for the lead.

"We spent most of our energy trying to get back into the game," Jones said. "We had a lot of fouls in the game, and we knew it'd be that way.

“We said before the game that we were going to go back playing the way we play and we did tonight.” said WVU Head Coach Bob Huggins after the game.

For the game, Bryant paced the Mountaineers with 22 points to lead all scorers. Shaquille Johnson had 15 to lead Marshall. Bryant for WVU and Markel Humphrey with 13 points and 8 rebounds were named the players of the game.

For Marshall it was the third loss in the last four classics.

Marshall takes on Tulsa and WVU battles South Florida Saturday.

Scoring by Periods

MARSHALL ...................23 53 - 76

WEST VIRGINIA ..........34 53 - 87

Scoring Totals:

MARSHALL (8-8)

Shaquille Johnson 15, Markel Humphrey 13, Damier Pitts 11, Tyler Wilkierson 9, Octaviius Spann 8, Darryl Merthie 6, Dago Pena 5, Chris Lutz 4, Adam Williams 3, Tirrell Baines 2.

WEST VIRGINIA (12-4)

Darryl Bryant 22, Da’Sean Butler 17, Alex Ruoff 15, Devin Ebanks 12. Kevin Jones 6, John Flowers 4, Wellington Smith 4, Josh Sowards 4, CAm Thoroughman 3, Dee Proby 0, Will Thomas 0.