West Virginia Makes Statement With Blowout Win Over No. 19 Richmond

Morgantown, WV - The No. 11 West Virginia Mountaineers built a 22-point first half lead behind a stingy defense and shot an impressive 58.1% from the field on the day to smash the No. 19 Richmond Spiders 87-71 Sunday afternoon inside the WVU Coliseum.

West Virginia and Richmond got into a groove offensively from the outset as both offenses ran efficiently, trading buckets living up to two top 20 teams looking to make an early statement.

West Virginia starting point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride was sent to the bench during the first media timeout. Jordan McCabe came in and buried a couple of threes in his absence while shooting guard Sean McNeil started to heat up as the Mountaineers took a 23-16 lead at the midway point of the first half.

“They’ve shot like that in practice pretty much all along. I don’t think it was a matter of them looking like they were hot; they were just normal. Sean really struggled in the games but made everything in practice. Taz has been pretty consistent in making shots. We got to get JB (Jalen Bridges) going because he can be another guy making shots for us. Emmitt’s made shots. If we don’t turn it over and we stop dribbling it so much, I think we can be a pretty good offensive team.”

Deuce checked back into the game with 8:24 left in the half. Richmond dwindled the lead back down to three before the Mountaineers cranked up their ¾ court defense as Deuce ignited a 7-0 spurt with a steal and the layup on the other end and Taz Sherman put capped it off with back-to-back buckets, including a three, to put West Virginia up 10.

Then, Deuce got hot and couldn’t be stopped scoring 12 of his 16 first half points in the final four minutes of the half and finished at the break, hitting 7-8 from the field. He ended the afternoon with 20 points, five assists, and three steals.

“We’re surprised when he doesn’t because he’s versatile,” replied Huggins when asked if he was surprised by McBride’s offensive performance. “He’s a guy that can shoot it off the bounce, he can shoot it off the catch, he can play with his back to the basket, he’s a versatile scorer.”

West Virginia finished the final three and a half minutes of the first half on a 15-3 run and took a 22-point lead into halftime, 52-30. The Mountaineer defense had resemblances of the Jevon Carter full court Press Virginia attack, coming away with eight steals and forcing 12 Richmond turnovers at the half.

“We just didn’t want to sit there and have them guard pass after pass, back cut after back cut, flare screens, and everything else that they do,” said Huggins. “They do a terrific job of running offense; we just wanted to make them play faster. When you press and you take some chance and you double team some things, they’re going to throw it out of there and have numbers which really does speed the game up against that offense.”

Richmond struck quickly coming out of the break, but West Virginia’s intensity continued and went up 63-33 at the 17:10 mark of the second half as the Mountaineers coasted to the 87-71 win and grabbed their first win over a ranked opponent on the season.

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