ELKINS, W.Va. – West Virginia State's mens basketball team swept the season series against the Davis & Elkins Senators on Wednesday when they won by a final of 93-82. State connected on 7-of-12 from long range and 34-of-61 from the field, and held the Senators to just one offensive rebound in the second half.

WVSU improves to 17-7 overall, 12-5 in Mountain East play. D&E falls to 13-12, 8-9 in the MEC.

Arthur Cox decimated his previous career high of 23 points by scoring 35 on 14-of-20 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 from the charity stripe. He also led the Yellow Jackets in boards with eight and dished three assists. Anthony Pittman scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds, a pair of assists, and a steal. Mahzi Thames was the other double-digit scorer for State with 11 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals.

Davis & Elkins jumped out in front to start the game, scoring seven of the first nine points. Cox converted an and-one to trim the lead to two. State and the Senators would see-saw back and forth up to the under-15 media timeout with D&E leading 13-10.  

State built off their last basket before the timeout and put together a 13-0 run that lasted exactly three minutes. Cox scored nine and Pittman scored four during the stretch, while D&E went 0-for-5 from the floor. A D&E trey broke the run, but State would out-score the Senators 12-3 in between the under-15 and the under-10 media timeouts.

The two teams spent a two minute span scoreless just after the under-10 timeout with the Senators going 0-for-2 from the floor and WVSU going 0-for-3 from the free throw line. A Pittman jumper ended the mini drought for State, but D&E went nearly five minutes without a field goal. The under-five timeout came with the two teams at nearly a draw, but State scored nine to D&E's eight.

WVSU closed the half shooting nearly perfect from the floor, hitting 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Cox scored six points while Pittman and Thames each scored four. State took a 45-32 lead into the locker room.

Davis & Elkins flipped the script on the Yellow Jackets in the opening four minutes of the second half, shooting 6-for-6 while State's shooting went cold at 1-of-7. Miguel Martinez was fouled after jacking a trey that was offline and he canned all three free throws, while Pittman hit a layup shortly after.

Cox single-handedly went on a 7-2 run shortly after the under-15 timeout to build State's lead back to double digits. A trey by D&E before the under-10 timeout closed State's lead to seven points. 

Pittman pumped out five straight with a trey and a mid-range jumper coming out of the timeout. Cox canned his only trey attempt of the game to give State their largest lead of the game at 76-61 with 6:48 to play. D&E closed it to 10 points by the time the under-five timeout was called. 

The Senators cut the lead back under double digits for 69 seconds until Kalil Camara drained a three-pointer with just under four minutes to play. Later, a Mahzi Thames miss allowed Pittman to grab an offensive rebound at the 2:30 mark of the second half, his 1000th rebound of his career. State hit 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to keep the game out of reach of the Senators.

State returns to the Walker Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 24 for a matchup against the West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats. Tip-off for the penultimate home game of the season is scheduled for 4:00 pm.