ANAHEIM, Calif. - One of the streets near the Anaheim Convention Center is Disney Way.

During the 76 Classic, it was the West Virginia Mountaineers' way - especially Sunday night.

In the prestigious tournament filled with upsets of ranked teams, WVU outclassed the field - and the nation's - surprise team, Portland, 84-66 in the championship.

Da'Sean Butler scored 26 points and Kevin Jones added 17 before a sparse crowd in the title game. Both were named to the all-tournament team and Butler was named the event's Most Valuable Player. Devin Ebanks added 14 points. Wellington Smith had seven rebounds.

WVU is the third champion - USC won in 2008; Wake Forest won in 2009 - in the upstart event.

Oddly, West Virginia never had a chance to play a ranked team in the tournament, although Portland seems likely to make an appearance in the Top 25. Butler, Clemson, Minnesota and, of course, WVU entered as Top 25 members.

The Mountaineers will settle for RPI points, though, while the rest of the field will RIP.

West Virginia, though, didn't win without a slight scare Sunday night.

After building up a 22-point lead at 58-36, Portland had a late surge to whittle the advantage to 10 at 66-56. The Pilots seemed to have momentum after they scored via a Robin Smeulders dunk. Portland's fans began to rise.

But at the end it was WVU's Truck Bryant who cuddled the tournament trophy.

After the teams seemed to tighten, a long pass out of a timeout to Ebanks began to quash it. Butler got loose inside. Soon, it was a Mountaineer parade to the free throw line and the 18-point victory.

"This means a lot,'' said WVU point guard Truck Bryant. "This is our first championship at West Virginia.''

Bryant acknowledged his team had been pointing at the 76 Classic as a proving ground.

"There's was a lot of negative talk,'' Bryant said. "People said we weren't going to win the tournament. Well, we won the tournament.'' 

Playing its fourth game in six days, West Virginia looked sluggish early on.

Although the Mountaineers appeared stronger, quicker and athletically more gifted, they got off to a 1-of-9 start offensively.

The Pilots, meanwhile, converted their first five shots, mostly in the paint. When Portland's Smeulders took a feed inside for a score early, the Pilots were up 10-6.

Jones then changed the game.

He reversed the early trend, first, by getting inside and, second, by scoring there on a follow at 12:18. WVU was just 3-of-14 from the floor after the basket.

Jones' follow-up seemed to spark not only the team, but the 6-8 forward himself. He converted another follow, then, after a WVU blocked shot, came down and hit a 3-point basket to give the Mountaineers their first lead - 13-12 - since being up 1-0.

What followed was not what Portland had hoped to see. Ebanks got in the groove, dishing a couple nice feeds. Butler caught fire, hitting three treys. Near halftime, Casey Mitchell got a rebound in the lane, converted the shot and collected a foul.

Portland got 12 of its first 20 points in the paint, but didn't convert one of their trademark treys until the 1:55 mark. WVU, meanwhile, hit 9 of 12 baskets in one stretch. It went on a 16-6 run.

Jones had 13 points and Butler 10 in the first half. The team hit 16-of-36 shots. Portland was held to 10-of-25.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - One of the streets near the Anaheim Convention Center is Disney Way.

During the 76 Classic, it was the West Virginia Mountaineers' way - especially Sunday night.

In the prestigious tournament filled with upsets of ranked teams, WVU outclassed the field - and the nation's - surprise team, Portland, 84-66 in the championship.

Da'Sean Butler scored 26 points and Kevin Jones added 17 before a sparse crowd in the title game. Both were named to the all-tournament team and Butler was named the event's Most Valuable Player. Devin Ebanks added 14 points. Wellington Smith had seven rebounds.

WVU is the third champion - USC won in 2008; Wake Forest won in 2009 - in the upstart event.

Oddly, West Virginia never had a chance to play a ranked team in the tournament, although Portland seems likely to make an appearance in the Top 25. Butler, Clemson, Minnesota and, of course, WVU entered as Top 25 members.

The Mountaineers will settle for RPI points, though, while the rest of the field will RIP.

West Virginia, though, didn't win without a slight scare Sunday night.

After building up a 22-point lead at 58-36, Portland had a late surge to whittle the advantage to 10 at 66-56. The Pilots seemed to have momentum after they scored via a Robin Smeulders dunk. Portland's fans began to rise.

But at the end it was WVU's Truck Bryant who cuddled the tournament trophy.

After the teams seemed to tighten, a long pass out of a timeout to Ebanks began to quash it. Butler got loose inside. Soon, it was a Mountaineer parade to the free throw line and the 18-point victory.

"This means a lot,'' said WVU point guard Truck Bryant. "This is our first championship at West Virginia.''

Bryant acknowledged his team had been pointing at the 76 Classic as a proving ground.

"There's was a lot of negative talk,'' Bryant said. "People said we weren't going to win the tournament. Well, we won the tournament.'' 

Playing its fourth game in six days, West Virginia looked sluggish early on.

Although the Mountaineers appeared stronger, quicker and athletically more gifted, they got off to a 1-of-9 start offensively.

The Pilots, meanwhile, converted their first five shots, mostly in the paint. When Portland's Smeulders took a feed inside for a score early, the Pilots were up 10-6.

Jones then changed the game.

He reversed the early trend, first, by getting inside and, second, by scoring there on a follow at 12:18. WVU was just 3-of-14 from the floor after the basket.

Jones' follow-up seemed to spark not only the team, but the 6-8 forward himself. He converted another follow, then, after a WVU blocked shot, came down and hit a 3-point basket to give the Mountaineers their first lead - 13-12 - since being up 1-0.

What followed was not what Portland had hoped to see. Ebanks got in the groove, dishing a couple nice feeds. Butler caught fire, hitting three treys. Near halftime, Casey Mitchell got a rebound in the lane, converted the shot and collected a foul.

Portland got 12 of its first 20 points in the paint, but didn't convert one of their trademark treys until the 1:55 mark. WVU, meanwhile, hit 9 of 12 baskets in one stretch. It went on a 16-6 run.

Jones had 13 points and Butler 10 in the first half. The team hit 16-of-36 shots. Portland was held to 10-of-25.

What may have been WVU's most impressive stat, though, was Portland's leading scorer, T.J. Campbell was held without a point in the span. He finished with 15 to lead his team, but the shutdown established tempo.

"We didn't make any shots early,'' said WVU coach Bob Huggins. "Then we started making shots and rebounding. Da'Sean made some shots.''

Huggins said his team may have pointed to the event, but "they are all important.

"In March they give the No. 1 seeds the easiest path,'' he said.

WVU outrebounded Portland 41-29.

One stood out among the spectators on Sunday at the Convention Center: West Virginia favorite son and NBA logo Jerry West, who lives in nearby Bel Air. His son Jonnie had a career-high 11 points in WVU's first-round win here Thursday against Long Beach.

The elder West said he kind of likes this edition of the Mountaineers.

"I haven't seen that much of them,'' West said, "but they're talented. They're not huge, but they are big enough and extremely well-coached. They play so hard - and are aggressive as hell.

"I think as the season goes along, they're going to get better. They're going to incorporate some of these guys. Ebanks got a late start. But I see confident-looking kids. And they just play so darn hard.''

West also said he doesn't buy into the preseason contention West Virginia's league, the Big East, is down.

"Bob [Huggins] and I were just talking about the Big East,'' West said. "The Big East is not going to be down. There are just too many good teams. And some of the teams you didn't think were going to be very good are pretty darn good. Consequently, every game will be a battle. For fans that like the best of [college] basketball, they're going to see a lot of it in the Big East this year.''

And of his son's breakout game against Long Beach?

"I was watching on TV,'' West said. "He's pretty excited. I think he understands the things he has to do to get better. Obviously, though, he can shoot the ball and knows what he's doing ... He's getting better. He feels much more confident.''

Classic closers:

Also, Long Beach and Texas A&M, early tournament WVU victims, won on Sunday. Long Beach, now 4-3, downed UCLA in a local matchup by 79-68. A&M, now 5-1, dropped Minnesota, 66-65. The Gophers are now 4-2.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.