CHARLESTON, W. VA. - Casey Mitchell had 25 points, Kevin Jones had 22 and the West Virginia Mountaineers broke open a close game over the final seven minutes, en route to an 82-66 win over the VMI Keydets Saturday night in Charleston, W. Va.

VMI suffered its first loss of the season and fell to 5-1 while West Virginia improved to 4-1.

The Keydets were paced in scoring by junior guard Keith Gabriel and freshman point guard Rodney Glasgow who each scored 18 points while senior guard Austin Kenon added 10 points.

Despite holding a 46-38 advantage on the boards and pounding out a 48-20 advantage in points in the paint, West Virginia found it difficult to shake the Keydets until the final seven minutes of regulation. Leading 38-30 at the break, WVU upped its margin to 13 points, 47-34, with 16:26 left in the second half Mitchell converted a three-point play.

The Keydets still trailed by a dozen as late as the 9:41 mark when guard Joe Mazzulla converted a layup to make it 59-47, but VMI chipped away with a 13-5 run over the next three minutes and pulled within 64-60 when Glasgow drained a trey at the 7:50 mark. The spurt was fueled by a resurgent outside shooting game as Kenon also canned two from long range over the run.

The Mountaineers answered with 10 straight points to push the lead back to double-digits and gradually pulled away. Mazulla and Kevin Jones started the spurt with back-to-back layups and another Jones layup pushed the Mountaineer lead to 10 points, 70-60. The WVU lead grew to as much as 17 points when Mitchell hit a jumper to make it 80-63 with two minutes left in regulation.

The first half saw four ties and five lead changes as the Keydets were sparked by Gabriel's 10 points before intermission. VMI led 25-22 on a pair of Ron Burks free throws at the 6:34 mark before a Mitchell layup capped six straight points and sent the Mountaineers on a 12-1 run.

VMI shot 33.8% from the field for the game while the Mountaineers hit 47.7% of attempts from the floor. The Keydets connected on just two treys in the first half before nailing seven 3-pointers after halftime.

VMI freshman forward D. J. Covington and sophomore guard Joe Carr were both held out of the game because of injuries.

The teams were meeting for the first time since the 1968-69 season. The contest was played before a full house of 12,367 at the Charleston Civic Center.

VMI returns to action Monday night at Cameron Hall when it faces Central Penn at 7:00 p.m.

HEAD COACH DUGGAR BAUCOM - "I was pleased with the guys' effort. I thought they played very hard and did their best to carry out the game plan. They missed a few assignments, but all-in-all to play without D.J. (Covington), I was proud of all the ways those guys went out there. They (WVa.) were big, strong and athletic. The second half three-point shooting was much better than the first half when we weren't ourselves. I don't think we shot it well the whole game - we missed some opportunities and had some looks, but they didn't go down. I was pleased with Nick Gore's play and thought he played well battling the big guys along with Wayne Whiting. I think we showed that we can compete with anybody. We just have to get everyone healthy. "