By james art 
MORGANTOWN, WV — West Virginia scored the game’s first 21 points en route to an 87-59 season-opening victory over Robert Morris in Darian DeVriesMountaineers’ coaching debut.
His son, Tucker, tallied the first 8 and finished the night with a game-high 18.
Transferred to Oklahoma State Javon Small chip with 15, EIK transfer Toby Okani scored 13, freshman Jonathan Powell there were 11 and a fellow freshman KJ Tenner finished with 10.
Amani Hansberry just missed a double-double with 9 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
West Virginia made 33 of its 60 field goal attempts for 55 percent, including 14 of 34 from 3-point range. Six different Mountaineer players made 3s, led by DeVries’ four of nine attempts.
DeVries, who produced six straight 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournament berths at Drake, is the 23rdrd coach makes his Mountaineer debut and seventh since the WVU Coliseum opener on Dec. 1, 1970 against Colgate.
Since then, Sonny Moran was the only one to play his first WVU game on the road, a 106-87 loss at Kentucky.
“We were really excited about the way we started this game and I thought our guys had great focus and really executed on both ends of the floor,” DeVries said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the start we had and I’m certainly thankful we came away with the win tonight. We hope this is the first of many.”
What the 9,229 here saw tonight was extremely aggressive defense, some accurate shooting from long range, excellent ball movement and good decision making.
“I liked the way we shared it, especially coming off the top,” DeVries said. “I thought we did a great job of getting the drive going, getting guys to switch and then making the extra pass. I thought we looked really good.’
Leading 30-2 with 11:59 left in the first half, West Virginia stayed at the 30 for the next three minutes until Okani took Small’s key inbounds pass with one hand and towered over everyone for a thunderous dunk.
WVU answered Robert Morris’ 12-2 run with an 11-0 surge that included 3s from DeVries, Hansberry and Powell sandwiched between Tenner’s runner in the paint.
The only thing that slowed West Virginia was a second-half delay due to a shot clock malfunction at the basket where the Mountaineers were warming up. Timed shot clocks were located under each basket.
The Mountaineers outscored the Colonials 41-33 in a second half in which both teams used most of their players. WVU emptied its bench with 2:48 left and an 82-56 lead. West Virginia’s largest lead was 29 points, 73-44, with 9:01 remaining.
Robert Morris scored 13 points off Gannon’s transfer to Josh Omojafo.
The Colonials shot just 32.4 percent and turned the ball over 14 times, 10 of which came in the first half.
The Nits will note Robert Morris’ 41-37 edge on the glass, including 16 offensive rebounds, West Virginia shooting just 58.3 percent from the free throw line and 11 Mountaineers turnovers, many of them unforced.
“We held them to 32 percent in both halves, but you give a team 16 offensive rebounds, which makes it pretty challenging, so we’ve got to do better there,” DeVries said. “We have to make that a major focus for us,”
The Mountaineers stay in Morgantown to face Massachusetts on Friday night. The Minutemen, old Atlantic 10 rivals, will be back after last year’s 87-79 victory at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“Overall, a great first game for us, coming out with a group that hasn’t played together a lot in a game-like environment, and I thought they had great focus,” DeVries said.
UMass opened the season with a 103-74 win tonight over New Hampshire.
Tickets for Friday night’s game are available at the Mountaineer ticket office and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.