Fairmont, W.Va. – Cenkar Evran finished the night with 22 points and 15 rebounds as the Edinboro men's basketball team won their season opener 68-50 over West Virginia Wesleyan Friday night on the first day of the Joe Retton Classic.

Edinboro held a 31-26 advantage going into the second half, but the Bobcats trimmed the lead to 38-36 after an Alex Mirhosseini layup at 15:29. The Scots scored the next five points on two Evran free throws and an Evan Berger 3-pointer. Curtis Litton answered with a triple of his own to cut the lead back to 43-39, but Edinboro blew the game open with an 18-5 run with five points each from Evran, Steve Kelly and Ryan Ladjevich to take a 61-44 lead. The lead never dipped below 14 the rest of the game.

West Virginia Wesleyan got out to an early lead, 15-7, after a pair of Mirhosseini free throws at the 13:11 mark of the first half. The Scots scored the next six points on buckets from Ryan Ladjevich, Steve Kelly and Bryce Baez cutting the lead to 15-13. Mirhosseini hit two more free throws to extend the lead, before a Baez jumper and a Ladjevich trey gave the Scots an 18-17 lead with 8:03 to play in the first.

The teams traded the lead for five straight possessions with the Bobcats up 24-23 with 6:07 left in the first. A Michael Dunn 3-pointer and three from Evran put the Scots back up 29-24 at the 4:32 mark. Michael Batchelor scored for Wesleyan, but two Evran free throws sent Edinboro into the half up 31-26.

In addition to his double-double, Evran tallied three assists and a block. Ladjevich tallied 12 points and seven rebounds. Kelly also reached double-figure scoring with 10 points to go with three assists and a steal.

Mirhosseini led all scorers with 29 points. Batchelor added nine points for the Bobcats.

The Scots are back in action on Saturday when they take on host Fairmont State at 7:30 p.m. on the second day of the Joe Retton Classic.