MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With ugly Christmas sweaters in abundance, No. 19 West Virginia continued feasting on the hors-d’oeuvres of the nonconference schedule. This time the sub-200 RPI opposition was Eastern Kentucky, and the runaway final score 84-59.
During a 10-1 start, the No. 19-ranked Mountaineers have pulverized lesser competition and faltered in their only major challenge, against Virginia. Now comes a nine-day break before a tricky and perhaps telling road game at Virginia Tech, where Year 2 of the Buzz Williams Experience seems to be generating improvement.
After that, the 18-game Big 12 grind commences.
“Everybody we play from here on out has a chance to beat us,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “That hasn’t been the case previously.”
That wasn’t the case Monday night when already out-manned EKU arrived more shorthanded thanks to Jarelle Reischel’s back injury. In such situations, the Mountaineers can only knock down the pins left standing and they struck quickly once again, flattening the Colonels under a 50-22 first-half deluge.
Huggins, therefor, found his teaching moments in the second half when the visitors outscored West Virginia 37-34.
“We made the (early) run and then we wanted to go home for Christmas,” he said, noting that over the final 20 minutes “we didn’t play with much inspiration.”
Watch Huggins’ complete postgame media briefing above.