Ross Hodge Praises Belief as WVU Grinds Out 62

The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-5, 1-1) outlasted the Cincinnati Bearcats (8-7, 0-2) Tuesday night 62-60.

WVU senior guard Honor Huff led all scorers with 24 points and a team-high eight rebounds while senior forward Chance Moore put in 14 points and senior forward Treysen Eaglestaff had 10 points and seven rebounds.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge met with the media following the game and gave his initial thoughts on the Mountaineers first Big 12 win.

Opening Statement

Obviously, when you win a game like that, I think the first thing that just kind of comes to mind is just that you feel really fortunate. A lot of things kind of had to go right in that last four-minute stretch.

The thing that was the most encouraging to me was when they made the three threes in a row, our collective energy and spirit in our huddle still had to look like they had a belief that we could still win the game. Not necessarily knowing how we were going to win it, but just a belief that we could still win it, and when you've been in a couple of the situations that we've been in before, where we've led games for 30-33 minutes, then, there's a stretch where you kind of let that go and let go of the rope. That can obviously kind of creep back in like here we go again. I thought our guys did a great job of fighting against that and were able to get stops in the last four minutes.

Once they took the lead, I think it was maybe they only scored a basket or maybe didn't score a basket the last couple minutes until (junior guard) Jizzle (James) hit the three to cut it to two. A lot of big plays from a lot of people when you get in those situations, and again, just proud of the guys. It wasn't always good basketball, but I thought our competitive spirit was there. I thought we tried really hard. We didn't always execute at the level that you need to but found a way to win.

We've been in a couple situations where we couldn't find ways to win, and we talked about those moments before. If the tradeoff is you lose those early non-league games, and if there's just a little bit of learning and a little bit of belief, even if it's just a different level of belief that you can capture from those tough games, and just like, we're going to figure out how to way to win this then, it's worth it.

I feel really fortunate, man. Really thankful, really appreciative that the crowd hung in there with us. I thought they were tremendous on a Tuesday night, and it's hard to get here for a lot of people, but they definitely willed us over the edge on that one.

On the play of senior guards Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff

They both put in incredible amounts of work. Their character, their belief, again, you know, I was a half a second from probably calling what would have maybe been the worst timeout of my career, because Trey was kind of pinned in over there. But it was just awesome for him. And you know, again, he's put in so much work. He cares so deeply about his teammates, about this university, about this state, and it was cool to see that level again. I think that's your character, your work ethic, you get favor from that.

We definitely needed it. It’s what Honor does. Honor shot the ball really well today, to the point where, when he does miss one, even if it's like a really difficult shot, you're kind of disappointed, like he's just supposed to make every single one he shoots. But we needed every play and every basket at that moment.

Ross Hodge Praises Belief as WVU Grinds Out 62–60 Win Over Cincinnati

Opening Statement

On the play of senior guards Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI