BATTLE — WVU guard Amir Jenkins (right) goes for a steal Tuesday night against Mount St. Mary’s. - Benjamin Powell

Apparently there is a story about Jasper Floyd looking good on opening night.

That’s the good news for the West Virginia men’s basketball team, which pulled away late Tuesday for a 70-54 victory over Mount St. Mary’s inside the Hope Coliseum in Ross Hodge’s first win as WVU’s head coach.

Floyd tied his career high with 25 points. He finished with eight points and an assist over the final 6:23, after Mount St. Mary’s had pulled within 52-46.

“I was just taking what the defense gave me,” said Floyd, who transferred over from North Texas this season, following Hodge to West Virginia. “They were playing off me, forcing me to score. That’s kind of what it felt like. They were living with me scoring instead of passing.”

The story behind Floyd’s strong starts is he began last season at North Texas with 23 points against Evansville.

Does that mean it’s all downhill from here for the point guard?

“I don’t know,” Hodge said with a smile. “Maybe everyone else will just play better.”

There is certainly some room for improvement, as WVU (1-0) shot just under 44% (21-48) from the floor and really struggled from 3-point range. West Virginia’s top shooting duo of Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff combined to go 3 for 12 from behind the arc.

Eaglestaff, a transfer from North Dakota, truly had an off night, finishing with one point and was 0 for 3 from the field. He averaged nearly 19 points per game at North Dakota last season.

“This isn’t my first time coaching really good shooters who maybe need to take a little while to really get their legs under them, because of the effort we’re asking them to exert on the defensive end of the floor,” Hodge said. “You’re asking him to play harder than he’s ever had to play on that end of the floor. He’s bought into that. Like all good offensive players, the game will open up for him and he’ll settle in.”

There were other issues, like WVU getting beat on the boards, 38-29, and WVU also struggled at the foul line, making only 62% (23 of 35).

“We spend a lot of time in practice on it,” said Huff, who scored seven of his 16 points from the foul line. “It’s a big point of emphasis, you just have to step up to the line and bang it. We’re a better free-throw shooting team than we’ve shown in our exhibition and in this game.”

There were plenty of positives, too. WVU forced 20 turnovers and recorded 13 steals. The forced turnovers, Hodge said, kind of negated Mount St. Mary’s rebounding advantage.

WVU’s defense also held Mount St. Mary’s to just 39% (18 of 46) from the floor. Mount St. Mary’s was never a threat from 3-point range, finishing just 5 of 17.

“Probably the difference in the game was our defensive activity with our hands and getting deflections and turning them over 20 times and we only turned it over nine,” Hodge said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well from three, but our overall activity defensively was the difference.”

Which brings us back to Floyd. With Mount St. Mary’s, well, mounting a comeback, it was Floyd who began to take the ball right to the rim. He got three lay-ups in the final minutes, added two free throws and then threw a perfect lob pass to teammate Brenen Lorient for a dunk that gave WVU a 60-48 lead with 3:30 remaining.

“Jasper has a unique ability to understand what his team needs in each moment,” Hodge said. “His calming presence, especially early in the game when we were kind of having a hard time finding baskets, he senses that. He can do that or he can go into facilitate mode. His even-keeled nature allows him to come up big in big moments.”

Floyd added four assists and five steals to go along with his 25 points in his WVU debut. He’ll try to follow that up at 7 p.m. Thursday, when WVU hosts Campbell.

Lorient, who also followed Hodge from North Texas, finished with a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

“It’s probably not a super surprise that the two guys who probably looked the most comfortable on the floor were the two guys who played for me and have been through 40 of these,” Hodge said. “You’re always going to be settling in. For us, our defense was good enough to carry us on a night when we didn’t make a lot of free throws and had opportunities to separate.”