West Virginia coach Bob Huggins’ frustrating defensive pressure extends all the way to Interstate 79 with a bumper-to-bumper trap on Jerry West Blvd. He didn’t reference losing by 27 on the road past year or overcoming a mental hurdle with a win at home later on the schedule. “We don’t have one”, Huggins said. But with 20 seconds to go we were down by two with the ball and couldn’t make a play.
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“If our energy and effort isn’t there, we really don’t have a chance to win unless we’re shooting the ball 80 percent”, Williams said. But he hit two big shots. Overall he really hasn’t been good in conference play. Huggins said. “Devin (Williams) gets in foul trouble and Elijah (Macon) answers the bell”.
Texas is on a bit of an upswing, entering on a two-game winning streak that included a home upset of Iowa State in overtime. With 6:15 to go in the game, West Virginia hits a huge 3 pointer to tie the game at 42.
“Williams has become very, very consistent for them”, Huggins said. Well, the first half Wednesday night was the opposite of that. They were wide left. “If you don’t believe in this place, you’ve got no shot”. And there wasn’t anyone around them.
They’ve lost both games after beating top-ranked Kansas here last week and lost two days after being ranked higher than they have been since reaching the same spot in the final poll of the 2010 regular season.
Felix was the catalyst all night long for the Horns.
“We had to stop practice [Tuesday] because it wasn’t going to help any”, he said. “And we weren’t mentally into what we were doing”. The Mountaineers generate a nation-leading 11.4 steals a game, with four players averaging at least 1.47 per outing. Assists_West Virginia 12 (Carter 4), Texas Tech 10 (Jackson, Thomas 3).
In games involving SEC men’s teams, Yante Maten had 21 points and 12 rebounds as Georgia (10-6, 3-3 SEC) held off Missouri (8-10, 1-4) for a 60-57 victory.
Those are WVU’s four guards. They would prefer not to play in the half court and thats where the superstars do most of their damage. The Boilermakers (16-3, 4-2) are coming off blowout wins over Penn State and Rutgers while the young Buckeyes (12-7, 4-2) are trying to bounce back after being slammed by Maryland. All 10 players scored, though, and its bench outscored WVU’s 21-15. This marks the first time since 2012 that the Longhorns have played back-to-back games against opponents in the Top 10 and first time in program history that UT has played consecutive teams in the Top 10 in true road contests. “We weren’t ready to play”. “They had a lot of energy, a lot of bounce in their step”.
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West Virginia Mountaineers forward Jonathan Holton (1) is guarded by Kansas Jayhawks forward Perry Ellis (34) during the second half at the WVU Coliseum. Justin Gray had 14 points, three assists, and one steal for Texas Tech. That kept them close after Texas led 17-11 with 6:56 remaining in the half. “We don’t always play well, but they always play hard”. “He got it off just before the shot clock”. It got off to a sluggish start before finding the right mix of attacking offense and aggressive defense.
