No. 25 West Virginia Escapes Youngstown with a Win

Youngstown, OH – The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-1) pulled away late in a 75-64 win over Youngstown State (7-6).

In a team effort, five different Mountaineers scored in double figures led by the West Virginia frontcourt duo Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, combining for 34 points and 13 rebounds along with a career-high 10 points from Taz Sherman. Jermaine Haley’s 11 and McBrides 10 points round out the double-digit scorers.

Youngstown native Derek Culver began his homecoming scoring seven of West Virginia’s first ten points.

West Virginia didn’t respect Youngstown State’s outside game, crashing in the paint on drives to the basket, and the Penguins took advantage of open opportunities, hitting 5-9 from three-point range and tying the game at 25 at the 7:48 mark in the first half.

The Mountaineers went without a field goal for over five minutes. However, Chase Harler ended the drought with a lay-in on a timely pass from Derek Culver which cut the Penguin lead to four (32-28) with 2:42 left in the half.

Youngstown State came out of halftime with a three-point lead and back-to-back layups pushed its lead to seven.

West Virginia answered after Oscar Tshiebwe started an 11-2 run with a jumper and got the Mountaineers within one with an emphatic dunk on his way to a dominant 15 points in the second half. Then, a Jermaine Haley layup gave West Virginia a 46-44 lead.

Midway through the second half, West Virginia built a seven-point lead behind the passing of Derek Culver, who finished with seven assists in the game.

“Derek Culver’s a really good basketball player," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. "We’ve just got to get him to where he has continual focus. When we get behind, generally that’s when Derek scores his points, that’s when Derek gets his rebounds, that’s when Derek makes his plays. We got to get him to do it all the time, so we don’t get behind."

The Mountaineers were holding onto a seven-point lead until free throws from Garrett Covington and then a turnover led to another pair of free throws by Darius Quisenberry got Youngstown State back within three with 2:14 remaining in the game.

Tshiebwe pushed the lead to six after going around a double-team for a reverse layup and the foul to complete an old fashioned three-point play.

Up until that point, the Mountaineers were just 5-14 from the free-throw line, but when it mattered the most, West Virginia closed out the game finishing 5-6 at the charity stripe to pull away with the 75-64 victory.

“We just didn’t come to play”, said Huggins. “We thought it was going to be easy and they had other ideas. I tried to explain to them (Youngstown State head coach) Jerrod (Calhoun) would have his guys ready to play – this is the game of the year on their schedule. This is the largest home crowd they’ve had in who knows how many years. It was a great night for them to pull off an upset. And we were, for a while, very accommodating.”

West Virginia meets No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes next Sunday at noon.