Box Score      The West Virginia State men's team accomplished a lot Saturday evening in the Walker Convocation Center.

     And along the way the Yellow Jackets' coach reached a couple of milestones himself.

     WVSU defeated Elizabeth City State 78-68 on the final day of the Earl Lloyd Conference Challenge.

     With the picture of Lloyd's legendary State coach Mark Cardwell occassionally appearing on the scoreboards screens on both sides of the gym as part of a video tribute to Lloyd the win saw Yellow Jacket Coach Bryan Poore tie Cardwell for most career wins at the school with 288. Counting the 12 wins Poore picked up in one year at the reigns of the University of Charleston and he now has 300 for his career.

    "It means I've been here for awhile for one thing," Poore said. "And I've had a lot of great players come through here, they are the ones that win the games."

     Poore took over in Institute prior to the 1999-2000 season and has led the Yellow Jackets to a pair of conference championships and three conference tournament titles. His 2009-10 squad finished the season 29-4 and ranked 12th nationally.

    Though he admitted that he was so focused on preparing for this weekend's games that he had actually forgotten about the meaning winning them would have Poore was appreciative of the timing.

     "Tying Mark Cardwell in the Earl Lloyd Classic," he said shaking his head. "That's kind of special right there."

     The victory Saturday was also very important to this year's team because it reversed last year's 0-2 start in the same event.

     Making matters worse star player Markee Mazyck was lost for the rest of the first half of the season when he broke a bone in his hand in the second game a year ago.

     This year both Mazyck and the Yellow Jackets  came out of the weekend unscathed .

      The 6-foot-6 senior led WVSU with 19 points and pulled down five rebounds in 35 minutes of action.

     Freshman point guard Brent Bauer contributed 15 points along with five assists while Keith Harris and Robert Fomby also hit double-figure scoring with 12 and 10 respectively.

     WVSU held a tenuous 37-35 advantage at halftime but scored the first five points after the break and the visitors could never catch up as the Jackets' lead reached 13 points at one time.

     The Yellow Jackets next game is Saturday, November 21, when they host Concord.