West Virginia shot itself out of its offensive woes.

Casey Mitchell scored a career-high 18 points and No. 8 West Virginia cruised past Long Beach State, 85-62, yesterday in the first round of the 76 Classic at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. The Mountaineers made 12 of 24 3-pointers and shot 51.8 percent from the field while the 49ers committed 22 turnovers and shot 41.9 percent.

"They haven't shot like that the first two games," Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. "Once they got into a flow, it's hard to turn that flow off."

The Mountaineers (3-0) led the entire game in the first meeting between the two schools.

"Every game we really try to press people, take them out of what they want to do," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. " I think we used our length a little bit to kind of disrupt them."

Greg Plater and Stephan Gilling each had 14 points for Long Beach State (3-2), which was trying for its first win against a ranked team since 1994.

West Virginia forward Da'Sean Butler, who had nine points in the first half, finished with 13.

West Virginia star sophomore forward Devin Ebanks missed his third consecutive game because of undisclosed personal reasons. There was no timetable for the all-Big East Conference rookie selection's return.

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