Mountaineers explode in second half to trample Longhorns
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sixth-ranked West Virginia held onto a big lead for a change.
Jevon Carter scored 22 points and led a second-half burst that propelled the Mountaineers to an 86-51 victory over Texas on Saturday.
After surrendering doubledigit leads in losses to No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 10 Kansas, West Virginia (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) broke the two-game losing streak, in part, by switching to a matchup zone defense to clog the scoring lane. The Mountaineers also kept from getting careless on offense.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all week,” Carter said. “Texas Tech, we had a lead. Kansas, we had a lead. We blew them both. We knew no matter what, we had to come out and play as hard as we can” in the second half.
West Virginia made 65.5 percent (19-of-29) of its field goals after halftime, the first time in four games the Mountaineers shot better than 50 percent in a half.
“When you make shots, you like to play defense better,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “We were flying around pretty good today. We tried to run the offense we’re supposed to run, not whoever gets it shoots it.”
West Virginia’s James “Beetle” Bolden added 19 points, Daxter Miles Jr. scored 15 and Sagaba Konate had 10 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks.
After Texas, which has the second-best defense in the Big 12, played its best defense in weeks in a 67-58 win over Texas Tech on Wednesday night, the Longhorns fell apart against the Mountaineers.
Texas (12-7, 3-4) forced several turnovers and twice trimmed a double-digit deficit to eight points early in the second half. Both times, the Longhorns couldn’t sustain the pressure and the Mountaineers responded.
Carter scored seven points during a 15-0 run, and Miles’ 3-pointer capped the rally for a 60-37 lead with 7:24 left.
West Virginia held Texas without a double-digit scorer for the first time this season. Mo Bamba, Kerwin Roach and Jacob Young each finished with nine points.
“I thought West Virginia’s spirit, fight and energy was just by far superior today,” Texas coach Shaka Smart said. “We didn’t respond to it well enough.”