One big question that the Charleston men's basketball team was hoping to answer as it opened the regular season was how efficient and effective it could be offensively.
The Golden Eagles gave a glimpse of what they could look like when things are clicking on all cylinders, using a dominant offensive showing to get rolling to an 89-54 victory over Ohio Valley University Saturday at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Facility.
"Offensively, we're getting so much better and are starting to play well," Charleston coach Dwaine Osborne said. "When we share the ball and move the ball, the more we get comfortable, we can be a pretty good offensive team like we showed today."
After opening the game making 11 of its 15 shots and shooting better than 60 percent from the field in the first half, Charleston ended up shooting 57.6 percent as it moved to 21-2 when it scores 80 or more points dating back to 2014.
UC was able to do its damage offensively by spreading the wealth in the scoring column. All 10 players who got into the game scored, led by Elliott Cole's 16 points.
UC got started by jumping out to a 16-3 lead after a 14-0 run, and the margin continued to grow as the half continued and shot after shot seemed to fall.
"We started really well, which was important, we hadn't gotten off to good starts yet this season," Osborne said. "It was good to go out and do what we were supposed to do. I'm pretty happy, overall, with the way we played and where we're at right now."
And while the Charleston offense looked as strong as it has all season, the Golden Eagles were also able to use their defense to help at times.
Ohio Valley struggled to get much going offensively for a large portion of the contest, shooting just 30 percent from the field while Charleston forced 10 turnovers while allowing just six assists. UC turned those turnovers into 10 points on the other end of the floor.
During the early stretch of the game that saw the Golden Eagles stretch their lead to more than 10 in the opening minutes, Ohio Valley went more than five minutes without a field goal.
"We didn't play as well as we could have defensively, we let them do a lot of things," Osborne said. "The percentages show that we might have guarded well, but in the second half especially, they missed a lot of easy looks. It's just a matter of tightening things up and putting it all together.
"If we figure that out, we can be pretty good."
Cole, a senior guard, made all six of his shots from the floor, including a perfect 4 of 4 on 3-pointers.
Three other UC players joined him in double figures. Jordan Smith scored 15 points while Keir Anderson and Shaq Speights added 14 and 13, respectively. Jonathan Tshibuy and Justin Coleman pulled down double figures in rebounds, finishing with 13 and 11, respectively, as Charleston outrebounded OVU 47-27.
The Fighting Scots were led by Aleksander Djordjevic with 18 points while Luka Djordjevic added 11.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.