No. 7 Texas topples West Virginia, 69-61

(Game highlights)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — From the outset of Big 12 Conference play, West Virginia has endured greater than its justifiable share of struggles down the stretch of video games, which performed a giant half in 4 of the Mountaineers’ 5 losses over their first six league video games.

Most lately, West Virginia acquired over the hump and closed sturdy Wednesday to knock off No. 14 TCU.

Looking to hold that momentum over into Saturday’s matchup with No. 7 Texas, nonetheless, late-game points resurfaced for the Mountaineers. The Longhorns acquired 19 second-half factors from standout guard Marcus Carr and outscored West Virginia 15-9 over the ultimate 6:58 to say a 69-61 victory on the WVU Coliseum.

“There’s issues I’m not at liberty to talk about,” stated WVU head coach Bob Huggins, hinting at greater issues which have factored into his crew’s struggles. “We had opportunities, but we’ve had opportunities in the other games that we lost, too. We didn’t seize opportunities.”

After James Okonkwo scored inside with 7:30 remaining to chop the Texas (16-3, 5-2) result in 54-52, the Mountaineers (11-8, 1-6) made just one area aim the remainder of the way in which. That got here on a Kedrian Johnson midrange jumper with 4:23 to play, and lower the WVU deficit to 60-55.

Johnson, who scored WVU’s final 9 factors, had missed a pair of free throws with 7:50 remaining after the Longhorns’ Sir’Jabari Rice was assessed a technical foul. At the time, the Mountaineers trailed 52-50, they usually by no means led or had been even from that time ahead.

“You can’t make all of them, but the misses are on me,” Johnson stated.

Yet Johnson additionally made all 5 of his free-throw makes an attempt in a span of 36 seconds to assist WVU trim what was a 61-56 deficit to 63-61 with 2:39 remaining.

Carr answered with two free throws of his personal on the 2:20 mark, and after Johnson missed a 3-pointer on the following possession, the Mountaineers got here up with an offensive rebound and known as timeout. Out of that timeout, nonetheless, WVU had problem inbounding the ball and Erik Stevenson threw a move towards Tre Mitchell that led to a bounce ball, with the possession arrow in Texas’ favor. Carr then made two free throws to offer UT a 67-61 lead with 1:36 left.

Though West Virginia had problem inbounding the ball at different instances within the recreation, no mishap was as important as that one.

“I didn’t hold my guy off enough,” Mitchell stated. “It was a misread by me. I take full responsibility for that one.”

WVU failed to attain on its remaining three possessions as effectively, with Johnson turning it over after which lacking a triple, earlier than Seth Wilson additionally missed from lengthy vary.

“If you want to make a recipe for losing, go back and look at our last 10 minutes,” Huggins stated.

The Mountaineers led 28-26 at halftime largely from forcing 9 Texas turnovers and holding Carr to 4 factors on 2-of-6 capturing. WVU, which made 10-of-24 pictures by means of the primary 20 minutes, had its personal turnover points and went to halftime with 10, together with three every from Johnson and Mitchell.

Wilson hit a triple 2:59 into the second half to offer the Mountaineers their largest lead at 38-33, although Texas pulled even 1:15 later courtesy of a Dylan Disu dunk.

WVU was by no means in entrance once more the remainder of the way in which, although the competition was tied at 40, 42 and 44. After Disu’s second-chance bucket put Texas again within the lead, Carr hit a triple that made it 49-44 with 9:35 to play.

“All year long, Marcus has let the game come to him,” Texas interim coach Rodney Terry stated. “He didn’t have to force it. We had some great reads to start the half and once he sees that ball go through the basket it opens up a lot for him and allows him to carry himself different on that end of the floor.”

The Mountaineers acquired a Johnson triple in response earlier than Disu accounted for a traditional three-point play. 

Mitchell, a Texas switch, hit a trey with 7:53 left to trim the Texas result in 52-50, however Johnson’s missed free throws adopted and the Mountaineers had been unable to recover from the hump of their straight loss to the Longhorns and fifth within the final six video games of the sequence.

“I know that Texas likes to pride themselves on defense, but the reality of the situation is we pick and choose when we want to play together,” Mitchell stated. “We pick and choose moments where we want to move the ball, screen for teammates and get each other open. We have to start sharing the ball a little bit more and stay consistent with it. We see success with it early on and then we deviate from it.”

Carr’s 23 factors had been a recreation excessive and got here on 8-of-14 capturing. 

“We just did a bad job,” Huggins stated. “He’s a right-handed man who likes to go proper and we let him go proper. He’s a man you need to pressure to the baseline so as to try to swallow him up with dimension and we let him go the place he needed. We did every part just about reverse of what we deliberate and drilled to do as a lot as you may drill on a day’s relaxation.“

Disu added 13 factors and Christian Bishop and Tyrese Hunter scored 11 apiece within the victory. Bishop additionally had a team-high seven rebounds, although WVU held a 29-26 benefit on the glass.

(*7*) Terry stated.

Johnson scored a career-high 22 factors and made 6-of-9 pictures, however had six turnovers. Mitchell added 12 factors with eight rebounds, although he was charged with 5 turnovers and shot 4 for 11.

“I just wanted to do what I could do to help us win,” Mitchell stated, “and clearly I didn’t do too well at that shooting 4 for 11 and turning it over five times.”

Guard Joe Toussaint, who entered averaging higher than 10 factors, performed lower than 11 minutes and scored three factors with three fouls. Afterward, Huggins accepted the blame for Toussaint’s lack of enjoying time.

“It was 100 percent my fault,” Huggins stated. “Joe deserves to play a lot of minutes. We have guys that play that don’t deserve minutes and haven’t earned minutes.”

Stevenson and Emmitt Matthews Jr., a pair of fifth-year school basketball gamers, struggled in defeat and mixed for 11 factors on 3-for-15 capturing.

The Mountaineers made solely 10-of-28 pictures after halftime and 20 of 52 for the sport, whereas turning it over 20 instances to Texas’ 13.

“That was big for us,” Terry stated. “We did a a lot better job within the second half ending with 4 turnovers and altered the sport in that regard. We did a greater job of ending possessions.“

(Bob Huggins postgame press convention)