Opportunity Knocks as Mountaineers Host No. 13 Texas Tech

West Virginia is searching for its second ranked win of the season and will host a No. 13 Texas Tech squad entering the game looking to avoid their first losing streak of the season after a tough loss against Kansas on Monday, as the two programs position themselves for postseason play.

The Mountaineers (15-8, 6-4) bounced back Thursday with a win over Cincinnati after suffering their first home loss of the season against Baylor last weekend, snapping a 16-game winning streak, dating back to last season. After trailing 30-20 at halftime, Cincinnati captured momentum out of the break and extended the lead to 14 before WVU stormed back to secure the 59-54 win. Marking the largest comeback since 2022,

“To their credit, I thought they played with more force and more physicality in the first half. But to these guys credit, I thought we just kind of stayed the course,” West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge said.

Senior guard Honor Huff scored all 16 of his points in the second half to pace the Mountaineers, hitting three consecutive three pointers, then followed with a runner and a foul heading into the under 12-minute media timeout to pull the Mountaineers within three.

“Credit to them, they made it hard on him and he just, again, stayed the course,” Hodge stated. “We've seen that one - we've seen it a time or two this year. And you know when the first one goes and another one goes, he has the capability, and then made some really great plays where he drove in there and got and ones as well when they really pressed up on him.”

Freshman DJ Thomas went into the contest with 12 made threes on the season, but buried two for the Mountaineers in the waning moments, knocking down the first with just over four minutes remaining to regain the lead and extended the advantage to four with his second triple on the night with a minute and a half on the clock. He also added a pair of free throws with under a minute left to play to help season the victory.

“I like DJ's ability to space the floor a little bit more because they were putting two on Honor and, again, was just proud of him,” Hodge said. “He puts in a ton of work as all these guys do. He's probably one of the highest character, mature freshman that that I've been around him, and Amir both. And happy for us, but you're really happy for him.”

Huff is averaging a team-best 15.8 points per game on the season, with most of his production coming from behind the arc. His 81 made threes on the year are tied for fifth nationally and second in the Big 12. His bombardment from the outside has demanded attention from defenses and it has opened the floor for his teammates and has averaged five assists in the last three games.

Brenen Lorient is second on the team in scoring (10.9 ppg) and rebounding (5.0 rpg). The senior forward finished with 11 gritty points Thursday night, capping a three-game trend of averaging double figures.

After a stretch of four games averaging 16.8 ppg, forward Treysen Eaglestaff has been held in check the last two contests. The senior was limited against the Bearcats, but his lone three on the night gave the Mountaineers their first lead midway in the second half.

West Virginia held Cincinnati to a 30.4% from the field in the second half to close the game and keep the Mountaineers above .500 in the Big 12 standings sit two games back of a coveted top four-seeding for the conference tournament.

The Red Raiders (16-6, 6-3) had arguably their worst offensive performance Monday night against Kansas, shooting a season-low 31.9% from the field and producing the second lowest point total (61) – a club that ranks third in scoring during league play, averaging 81.7 ppg.

“It was one of those games where obviously getting stops was a big part of it,” Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland stated. “We were able to get stops – I love our competitiveness. I loved the fight of our team - I told them that. This game’s about finding ways to win and we didn’t do that - Kansas did down the stretch. Just didn’t execute well enough.”

Some of the Red Raiders’ shortcomings against the Jayhawks was due to the absence of the team’s assist leader (7.5) and second leading scorer (19.6 ppg), sophomore point guard Christian Anderson, after he was sidelined with an undisclosed illness just minutes before tip-off.

“Before the game, we just didn’t have an idea that it was an option and then, just was told in warmups that we’re going to hold him out for right now.,’” McCasland said. “Fully anticipated him playing. Then, we got closer to going out there and they said, ‘we’re going to take him and try to warm him up, while they’re doing intros and see if we can get where he’s ready to play.’ I just think everybody thought he was playing till the very end.”

JT Toppin leads the team with 21.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game but was held to 10 points and six rebounds versus the Jayhawks – his second lowest point total of the season.

“JT got a couple of fouls and then he just didn’t look like he was in a rhythm early In the game and give them credit,” McCasland said. “We did have to change some things and there was a different pattern in how we played and just weren’t able to get him the ball in good spots. And then the second half, I do think sometimes we settle too much. The second half though, I thought JT was aggressive and we had a stretch there we switched blocks, and he was really trying to go score.”

Junior forward LeJuan Watts produced a game-high 19 points and a season-high 12 rebounds for his third double double of the season. He helped run the point in the absence of Anderson. The Washington State transfer is third on the team in scoring, averaging 13.0 ppg and second in rebounding at 6.5 rpg.

“LeJuan, when we felt like we needed a guy to handle the ball, he’s really worked hard to put himself into position to do that.”

Texas Tech is two games back from a two-seed as the Red Raiders look to keep pace for the opposite side of the conference bracket from top-ranked and undefeated Arizona.

West Virginia leads the all-time series 18-11. WVU has dropped five of the last seven meetings.

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI