Mountaineers off the mark
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It doesn’t take long to look at Saturday’s box score and understand how West Virginia lost.
After carrying a six-point lead into halftime against Texas Tech, the Mountaineers shot a shocking 4 for 32 (12.5%) from the floor in the second half to lose, 60-53, at WVU Coliseum. Even still, they were in it until the end.
With just over a minute to go in the game, trailing by six, West Virginia stole the ball from the Red Raiders and point guard Kedrian Johnson hit a jumper from the free-throw line to cut the lead to four. Texas Tech hit two free throws, and the rest of the game was indicative of the Mountaineers’ entire second half.
First, Johnson drove the ball down the court and fed forward Gabe Osabuohien around the free-throw line. He took it deeper into the lane and sent it to big man Pauly Paulicap, who went up for a dunk and was stuffed at the rim. After another Red Raiders free throw, things were even more desperate. This time, Johnson took the ball down court and had his drive cut off. Johnson dished to guard Sean McNeil, who was immediately swarmed and gave it to wingman Jalen Bridges, who pump-faked and dodged oncoming defenders before hoisting an airball 3.
The point is, offense was hopeless for the Mountaineers. They were blitzed by one of the top defenses in Division I, and especially over the final 20 minutes, found nothing. In the end, that six-point halftime lead turned into a seven-point loss for West Virginia (13-8, 2-7 Big 12 Conference), furthering their current free fall. The Mountaineers have lost seven games in a row, tied for the longest losing streak in coach Bob Huggins’ 15-year tenure at West Virginia.
“You can’t win when you’re 4 for 32,” Huggins said. “I thought our effort was fine. How do you win 4 for 32? You’re not going to win. They big boy’d us there.”
The reason for the Mountaineers’ shooting woes is not difficult to discern. They were without star point guard Taz Sherman, who averages 18.9 points, as he sat out with a concussion he suffered Jan. 31 against Baylor.
In his stead, McNeil and Bridges were left to carry the scoring load. For the opening half, they did. McNeil set the tone with a four-point play, and Bridges was unconscious, even banking in a 3-pointer near the end of the half. All told, the duo combined to go 8 for 15 with 23 points in the first stanza.
In the second half, all Texas Tech’s defensive attention was focused on those two, forcing them to beat the Red Raiders off the dribble or hoist contested jumpers. Neither option was optimal, and when somebody else tried their hand at scoring, that didn’t work either. Thus, 4 for 32.
“They chased both of them,” Huggins said. “If they needed to switch, they switched. They didn’t really pay attention to the other guys. They were hell-bent on making sure those two didn’t beat them.”
You could find some encouragement in the fact that West Virginia stayed in the game despite getting nothing on one end of the floor, especially with the knowledge that Sherman will likely return in the near future.
To Huggins, though, that allowed mistakes to shine through even more.
“We seem to do things that we know better than to do at the wrong times,” Huggins said. “I think that happens to everybody at some point in time, but we just can’t afford it. We don’t have that margin for error.
“... When you’re 4 for 32, you have no margin for error.”