West Virginia and Duquesne Meet in Exhibition to Help Shooting Victims

When the Dukes travel to Morgantown Friday to take on the Mountaineers both teams will be looking to learn a little bit more about themselves ahead of the regular season starting.

The teams will not be the only ones benefitting from the contest, however. Proceeds from the game will be going towards the Dayton Oregon District Tragedy Fund. The fund, started by the Dayton Foundation, is set up to help individuals affected by the mass shooting that occurred in downtown Dayton on Aug. 4.

This game comes as a result of an NCAA rule change that allows programs to host exhibitions against other Division I teams to raise money for a charity.

On the floor, Big 12 preseason freshman of the year Oscar Tshiebwe will make his debut in front of the WVU home crowd for the first time since the Gold-Blue game. Tshiebwe and sophomore Derek Culver look to be one of the best big man duos in the nation this season. Despite missing 15 games at the beginning of the year due to suspension, Culver led the Big 12 in rebounding in 2018-19

Point guard Jordan McCabe will also be back in action following knee surgery this summer. Head coach Bob Huggins is hoping to lead his team to a better record than the 15-21 record the team posted a season ago.

For the Dukes, third-year head coach Keith Dambrot led a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores to a 19 win season in 2018-19 and will be looking to build on that success.

Duquesne is led by Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team member Sincere Carry. Carry scored 12.1 points per game last season and had a 161-68 assists to steals ratio. Tshiebew’s former high school teammate, Maceo Austin is one of the Duke’s promising newcomers.

The game will tip-off at the WVU Coliseum at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on AT&T Sportsnet.