Ross Hodge Praises Maturity, Defense After WVU Captures First Road Win

The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-6, 4-2) captured their first road win of the season after taking down the Arizona State Sun Devils (10-9, 1-5) Wednesday night, 75-63.

West Virginia senior Forward Treysen Eaglestaff led all scorers and matched a season-high 23-points with a team-best seven rebounds, senior forward Brenen Lorient put in 15 points and point guard Jasper Floyed had 12 points, four assists and five rebounds.

WVU head coach Ross Hodge gave his initial thoughts and the second half adjustments to secure the win over the Sun Devils.

Opening statement

“I got a lot of respect for (Arizona State head) coach Hurley and this program. Eleven years in this climate says a lot. Odum’s a handful and they put so much pressure on you in transition and can spread you out. I really do feel like Diop is going to be an NBA player one day. I mean, honestly, with his versatility and his touch and how well he moves.

“I thought they were the more aggressive team to start the game. They kind of had us on our heels. They beat us to lose balls. We didn’t do a good job rebounding the ball and then I think slowly but surely we were able to get our footing and defensively, executed better.

“Obviously, Eaglestaff was huge in the first half, keeping us afloat when we were really, really struggling. And then, I thought the response in the second half, as a group, was big. I thought Lorient was incredible in the second half. Chance Moore made some big plays. Really, every player that played made some monster plays. I thought one of the biggest plays was when DJ Thomas went and dug out a lose ball when we were maybe up two or three and then we were able to make a three after that and just never relinquished from there. Hard fought win and we’ll take it.”

Halftime adjustments

“We have a mature group - those guys have played a lot of basketball. We haven’t played a lot of basketball together, but collectively, they’ve played a lot of basketball. So, it wasn’t like an aggressive tone, or you didn’t really have to challenge them that much, it was we didn’t feel like we had played very well, in particular, defensively. They shot 58% from two, 50% from three and we were only down by two. So, in a lot of ways we felt fortunate to be in that situation and just knew we had to play better.”

WVU leading scorer Honor Huff (17.1 ppg) limited to eight points

“All year long Honor has been our most consistent player on a night in night out basis, but all those other guys have had big games in big moments. The more ways you can win a game, the probably the better. He gets so much attention that, that opens the floor for those other people and those guys stepped up in those moments really well.”

West Virginia is back in action Saturday afternoon as the traverse Arizona to take on the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. EST and the action will broadcast on CBS.

Opening statement

Halftime adjustments

WVU leading scorer Honor Huff (17.1 ppg) limited to eight points

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