Ross Hodge Discusses the Impact of Honor Huff and DJ Thomas in the Win Against Lafayette

The West Virginia Mountaineers (5-0) moved past the Lafayette Leopards (1-4) Monday night 81-59.

West Virgina freshman forward DJ Thomas produced a career and game-high 25 points, while senior guard Honor Huff buried eight threes for 24 points.

WVU head coach Ross Hodge met with the media following the game and gave his thoughts on Monday night’s outcome.

Opening statement

I was proud of the way we finished that last four minutes. The last couple of minutes in particular, getting stops, making them miss, (senior guard) Treysen (Eaglestaff) had a big block, (freshman guard) Jayden (Forsythe) did a good job crashing down and got stops and (freshman guard) Amir (Jenkins) finished it the right way. That’s what you’re looking for.

As far as the game, I felt like our defensive intensity was pretty good throughout the entire game. We were able to turn them. They came in a low- turnover team. They had done a really good job of taking care of the ball, and we were able to force some turnovers. I think the byproduct of that is when you are being really aggressive, maybe you can give up some backcuts and kick-out threes. They made some tough shots.

(Lafayette junior guard/forward Andrew) Phillips and (Lafayette sophomore guard Caleb) Williams, that is what they have done all year long. They came in averaging about 19 or 18 [points] apiece. The first half kind of had some busted plays at the end of clocks where we guarded pretty well. The ball just got squirted out of there. That was probably the biggest disappointment, for me personally, of the game was just our inability to make some physical plays and come up with some of those loose balls, but 19 assists on 29 field goals, had opportunities for a few more and all and all, it wasn’t perfect, but we’re still improving, and we’ll take it.

Honor Huff impacting the play of others on offense

Every team is going to play you a little different, and we knew going into this game that they were going to zone some and they had double-teamed the post. So, we figured with them deciding to double team (senior center) Harlan (Obioha) and probably double team (senior forward Brenen) B-Lo (Lorient), that’s the play that Honor got the first shot of the game on, was out of the double team. Those guys are such good passers, and I thought our spacing was good on that, and those guys did a good job of executing it and DJ got to where he needed to be and he was the recipient of some really good passes. B-Lo had four assists and one turnover, Harlan two, (senior guard) Jasper (Floyd) six, Amir five. He found himself in a good position and finished and left a couple more on the table, he probably wished he could have finished those as well.

DJ Thomas’s career night

He has a great feel. He’s got a great feel. Again, played for a really good high school program. Allen High School down there in Texas. Coach (Clark) Cip (Cipoletta) and Coach (Chris) Blakeley. He has a great feel. He is really mature. He is a good listener and listening is a skill. It really is. Just like running fast and jumping high, the ability to listen to what your coach is asking you to do and then have the ability to go execute that. Like you said, sometimes the difference between getting a wide-open layup and having a turnover is getting to where you are supposed to get to. He is getting better defensively as well. He was really the recipient of some good passing tonight from our team.

Opening statement

Honor Huff impacting the play of others on offense

DJ Thomas’s career night

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