West Virginia Starts the First of a Two-Game Road Trip with TCU
Ft. Worth, TX – The No. 14 West Virginia Mountaineers (19-7, 7-6) are on the road for the next two games beginning Saturday against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs (14-12, 5-8) Saturday at 2:00 pm est on ESPNU.
TCU started 3-0 in Big 12 play before an 81-49 drubbing by the hands of the Mountaineers on January 14 in Morgantown began a tough 2-9 stretch in their last 11 games, albeit seven of them were on the road. Both wins came at home over Texas Tech and, last week, Kansas State with a six-game slide sandwiched in between.
The Horned Frogs suffered their eighth conference loss Wednesday night at Texas 70-56.
Their statistics reflect their record, with an average margin of scoring sitting at -9.2 and ranking in the bottom half of every statistical category during conference play except for offensive rebounding tying Oklahoma State for third at 10.8 per game. However, guard Desmond Baneas flourished ranking third in conference scoring with 15.5 points per game.
West Virginia ended its three-game slump with a dominant second-half defensive performance that held Oklahoma State to 14 points and pull away from the Cowboys Tuesday night 65-47 after trailing by five at halftime.
West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins went with a different starting lineup against Oklahoma State than the original starting five. Miles “Deuce” McBride and Taz Sherman got the starting nod over Jordan McCabe and Derek Culver, and although Huggins didn’t get the results he was looking for, he believes it may have benefited sophomore forward Derek Culver.
“You could say it helped motivate Derek,” said Huggins. “That’s as well as Derek’s played in a long time. And, he’s the guy that turned the game around. I mean, if you’re going point to one guy, he’s the guy that turned the game around. Starting blocking shots, so they were not as eager to penetrate. He did a great job guarding on the perimeter. He rebounded the ball.”
Along with Deuce McBride, Sean McNeil came off the bench and led the team with 11 points. That was the fourth time this season McNeil has reached double figures, all coming in 20-plus minutes. Nonetheless, Huggins hasn’t been thinking about the starting lineup.
“I haven’t thought that much about it in all honesty,” said Huggins. “I’ve been trying to make sure that we don’t get ambushed at TCU. Trying to make sure that at least we’re prepared. They may make a bunch of shots and they’re capable of doing that. But it helps our guys if they know how and where and when they’re going to take those shots.”
West Virginia is shooting just 42.4% on the season and shot 42.6% on Tuesday night but as much as their offense has struggled, it’s all about rebounding and defense for the Mountaineers. Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver combined for 25 rebounds Tuesday, four-shy of the Cowboys total rebounds, 16 coming from the second half and the Mountaineer defense held Oklahoma State to 17% (5-30) from the field in the second half.
As Huggins always says, “Do what you do best,” and the Mountaineers will come away with their first road win since January 6th.
