The remainder of the first-team unit consisted of regular starters Nathan Adrian, Esa Ahmad and Jevon Carter.
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Within the first four minutes of the second half, West Virginia had pushed the lead to over twenty points.
ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA (22-7, 11-5): The Mountaineers wear down opponents with stifling defense – they rank second in the nation with 9.9 steals per game – and a deep bench.
Jonathan Holton grabbed 11 rebounds in his West Virginia home finale and senior walk-on Richard Romeo brought the crowd alive with a late baseline jumper. “Our execution still at times is not good and we’ve definitely got to do a better job in transition”.
At the end of the game, Tech tallied 10 more turnovers than the Mountaineers as they combined for 19.
Giveaways and the massive rebounding edge afforded West Virginia a 68-41 edge in shot attempts. They outrebounded Texas Tech 40-23 overall and 19-3 on the offensive glass. And the visitors would never recapture the lead. The Red Raiders stayed within five points most of the half, and with 5:54 until the break a Zach Smith layup cut the West Virginia lead to 24-22.
Texas Tech would trim the lead to 15-14 on the heels of a mixture of layups and three pointers as the two teams would continue to exchange punches early in the game. Miles was 5-10, with all of his shots coming from three.
This was the sixth time West Virginia scored at least 90 points in a game this season. At that spot, the home standing team had already taken nine more shots than the Red Raiders. They finished the half ahead 41-26.
But Texas Tech would score four straight of their own breaking the press forcing Huggins to hit the bench and substitute four of his five starters and the lead would quickly move back to 49-30.
The Mountaineers largest was 82-55 with 4:52 left.
The Mountaineers have won back-to-back games by double digits, cruising past Oklahoma State 70-56 on Saturday behind Paige’s 17 points.
The first game will be this evening at 6:30 at The Rip with the 2nd game Wednesday afternoon at 2:00pm.
Daxter Miles scored all of his 15 points on 3s for the Mountaineers (23-7, 12-5 Big 12), who retained sole possession of second place behind Big 12 champion Kansas.
Moments later, WVU had the ball back on an offensive foul and got a basket by Carter, then forced a shot clock violation to get the ball back.
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Big 12 rivals that are likely heading to the NCAA Tournament will square off at 7:00PM ET tonight on ESPNU when No. 10 West Virginia host Texas Tech.
