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02-21-2018, 08:31 AM
This time West Virginia's lead was simply too big to let slip away.
The 21st-ranked Mountaineers, prone to losing late double-digit leads, built a 28-point margin early in the second half and that was too much for streaking Baylor to overcome, the home-standing Bears succumbing, 71-60, to West Virginia before 7,519 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, tonight.
"I'm happy to win," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said during his postgame radio show. "We tried not to there for a while."
Things got a little hairy at the midway point of the second half when West Virginia experienced one of its second-half scoring droughts, the Bears slicing the 28-point lead in half with 9:02 remaining, and getting it down to 12 before Daxter Miles Jr., with the shot clock winding down, hit a 3 and was fouled by Nuni Omot.
Miles Jr. made the free throw to complete a four-point play with the clock stopped at 6:52.
"That one was huge because they had some momentum going," Huggins said.
After that, it was simply a matter of not doing anything foolish, hanging on to the basketball and making its free throws.
For the most part, West Virginia (20-8, 9-6) was able to do all three. The remainder of the game turned sloppy, with double technical fouls being called twice and Baylor coach Scott Drew also getting rung up by trail official Patrick Adams.
The game ended with both teams committing a total of 46 fouls and shooting 50 free throws, but unlike Saturday's loss at Kansas, at least the other team was also being called for some of the fouls and West Virginia was actually able to shoot some free throws.
"I don't know why we can't just keep the pedal down the whole time," Huggins said. "There were a lot of stoppages in play which doesn't help anything."
WVU's first half was a site to behold, West Virginia's pressure defense completely smothering the hottest team in the conference that was coming into tonight's game with five straight victories over Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Texas and Texas Tech.
The Bears (17-11, 7-8) put themselves back into NCAA Tournament consideration by making clutch shots and stopping the other team's shooters.
In the first half tonight they did neither, making just five of their 26 field goal attempts and turning the ball over 12 times as West Virginia built a huge halftime advantage.
An 18-3 run over a span of seven minutes gave the Mountaineers a 29-9 lead, Esa Ahmad contributing 7 of those on a 3, a two-pointer and a pair of free throws, and Beetle Bolden adding 5.
Baylor got its deficit down to 15 with 1:44 left, but Bolden scored 5 points of the team's final seven points of the half and Jevon Carter putting a punctuation point on the 7-0 run with a breakaway dunk as the halftime horn sounded.
"I thought our man defense was really good and we played a little bit of zone at the end to burn a little bit of clock," Huggins said.
The Mountaineers got across-the-board production with Ahmad and Carter leading the way with 15 points each, but it was the play in the paint by Sagaba Konate that was the difference in the game.
He just missed a triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and a school-record-tying nine blocks to boost his season total to 91. Konate now shares the single-game block record with D'or Fischer, who rejected nine Rhode Island shot attempts at the WVU Coliseum on March 19, 2004.
There have only been four triple-double games in WVU history, the last coming 43 years ago in 1975 when Jerome Anderson scored 18 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists in a 99-83 victory over Boston University.
"(Konate) was in the locker room counting (his blocks) and he said, 'I've got 10,'" Huggins joked. "You take Sags out of there and we don't rebound it very well, though."
The 13 team blocks was one away from the school record of 14 set against Ohio Wesleyan in 1982.
Miles Jr, coming off his fantastic 22-point performance on Saturday at Kansas, scored 10, as did Bolden coming off the bench.
Carter, needing just three assists to become the first player in school history to score 1,500 points, grab 500 rebounds and hand out 500 assists, got two assists tonight and will have to wait until Saturday's game against Iowa State to become a member of an exclusive one-man club.
Baylor, which defeated league-leading Kansas by 16 points 10 days ago here at the Ferrell Center and knocked off seventh-ranked Texas Tech here by two on Saturday, got 16 points and 10 rebounds from forward Jo Lual-Acuil and 12 from Manu Lecomte.
WVU assumes sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings ahead of 8-6 Kansas State with three regular season games remaining and owns tiebreakers now over K-State, Baylor and Oklahoma with season sweeps.
And while the Mountaineers have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the regular season championship, a lot of things have to happen with Kansas now at 11-4 and Texas Tech at 10-4 sitting ahead of them in the league standings.
It's now the eighth time in 11 seasons that Huggins has won at least 20 games at West Virginia.
WVU returns to the Coliseum to face Iowa State in a Saturday evening game that will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Cyclones ran the Mountaineers out of the gym when the two teams met in Ames back on Jan. 31, Iowa State claiming a 93-77 triumph.
The game has already been announced a sellout.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/2/20/mens...-at-5.aspx
The 21st-ranked Mountaineers, prone to losing late double-digit leads, built a 28-point margin early in the second half and that was too much for streaking Baylor to overcome, the home-standing Bears succumbing, 71-60, to West Virginia before 7,519 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, tonight.
"I'm happy to win," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said during his postgame radio show. "We tried not to there for a while."
Things got a little hairy at the midway point of the second half when West Virginia experienced one of its second-half scoring droughts, the Bears slicing the 28-point lead in half with 9:02 remaining, and getting it down to 12 before Daxter Miles Jr., with the shot clock winding down, hit a 3 and was fouled by Nuni Omot.
Miles Jr. made the free throw to complete a four-point play with the clock stopped at 6:52.
"That one was huge because they had some momentum going," Huggins said.
After that, it was simply a matter of not doing anything foolish, hanging on to the basketball and making its free throws.
For the most part, West Virginia (20-8, 9-6) was able to do all three. The remainder of the game turned sloppy, with double technical fouls being called twice and Baylor coach Scott Drew also getting rung up by trail official Patrick Adams.
The game ended with both teams committing a total of 46 fouls and shooting 50 free throws, but unlike Saturday's loss at Kansas, at least the other team was also being called for some of the fouls and West Virginia was actually able to shoot some free throws.
"I don't know why we can't just keep the pedal down the whole time," Huggins said. "There were a lot of stoppages in play which doesn't help anything."
WVU's first half was a site to behold, West Virginia's pressure defense completely smothering the hottest team in the conference that was coming into tonight's game with five straight victories over Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Texas and Texas Tech.
The Bears (17-11, 7-8) put themselves back into NCAA Tournament consideration by making clutch shots and stopping the other team's shooters.
In the first half tonight they did neither, making just five of their 26 field goal attempts and turning the ball over 12 times as West Virginia built a huge halftime advantage.
An 18-3 run over a span of seven minutes gave the Mountaineers a 29-9 lead, Esa Ahmad contributing 7 of those on a 3, a two-pointer and a pair of free throws, and Beetle Bolden adding 5.
Baylor got its deficit down to 15 with 1:44 left, but Bolden scored 5 points of the team's final seven points of the half and Jevon Carter putting a punctuation point on the 7-0 run with a breakaway dunk as the halftime horn sounded.
"I thought our man defense was really good and we played a little bit of zone at the end to burn a little bit of clock," Huggins said.
The Mountaineers got across-the-board production with Ahmad and Carter leading the way with 15 points each, but it was the play in the paint by Sagaba Konate that was the difference in the game.
He just missed a triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and a school-record-tying nine blocks to boost his season total to 91. Konate now shares the single-game block record with D'or Fischer, who rejected nine Rhode Island shot attempts at the WVU Coliseum on March 19, 2004.
There have only been four triple-double games in WVU history, the last coming 43 years ago in 1975 when Jerome Anderson scored 18 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists in a 99-83 victory over Boston University.
"(Konate) was in the locker room counting (his blocks) and he said, 'I've got 10,'" Huggins joked. "You take Sags out of there and we don't rebound it very well, though."
The 13 team blocks was one away from the school record of 14 set against Ohio Wesleyan in 1982.
Miles Jr, coming off his fantastic 22-point performance on Saturday at Kansas, scored 10, as did Bolden coming off the bench.
Carter, needing just three assists to become the first player in school history to score 1,500 points, grab 500 rebounds and hand out 500 assists, got two assists tonight and will have to wait until Saturday's game against Iowa State to become a member of an exclusive one-man club.
Baylor, which defeated league-leading Kansas by 16 points 10 days ago here at the Ferrell Center and knocked off seventh-ranked Texas Tech here by two on Saturday, got 16 points and 10 rebounds from forward Jo Lual-Acuil and 12 from Manu Lecomte.
WVU assumes sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings ahead of 8-6 Kansas State with three regular season games remaining and owns tiebreakers now over K-State, Baylor and Oklahoma with season sweeps.
And while the Mountaineers have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the regular season championship, a lot of things have to happen with Kansas now at 11-4 and Texas Tech at 10-4 sitting ahead of them in the league standings.
It's now the eighth time in 11 seasons that Huggins has won at least 20 games at West Virginia.
WVU returns to the Coliseum to face Iowa State in a Saturday evening game that will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Cyclones ran the Mountaineers out of the gym when the two teams met in Ames back on Jan. 31, Iowa State claiming a 93-77 triumph.
The game has already been announced a sellout.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/2/20/mens...-at-5.aspx
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