(Bob Huggins postgame Zoom conference)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A game-ending 18-9 run propelled No. 11 West Virginia to their fourth victory in five games to open up the season, 80-71 at Georgetown in the Big 12/Big East Battle Sunday afternoon.
The Mountaineers broke open a 62-all tie starting at the 6:30 mark of the second half with a 9-0 run. Five of the points came courtesy of Taz Sherman and four more came from Derek Culver. Sherman scored a dozen points in the game. Culver was held to three points in the first half and fought foul trouble in the second half to finish with 14 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
“(Culver) kept bugging the heck out of me trying to get back in the game,” said WVU head coach Bob Huggins. “I told him I need him at the end, particularly in light of the fact that Gabe (Osabuohien) got in foul trouble. We need one of those two guys on the floor.”
Deuce McBride led the Mountaineers with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
“When it comes to crunch time like that, I have absolutely the utmost faith in giving the ball to Deuce McBride and saying here make a play,” said Emmitt Matthews, Jr. “It is almost like second nature for him. He is really just a playmaker.”
West Virginia trailed 34-32 at halftime as their post combination of Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe were in foul trouble. After going scoreless in the first half, Tshiebwe ended the game with 9 points and 6 boards.
“I think we have two of the best bigs in America,” said McBride. “When Oscar and Derek are playing like we know and what we see everyday in practice, it is hard to stop them. Obviously, when they are controlling the paint, it makes playing on the perimeter a lot easier.”
After averaging 6.3 points per game in WVU’s first four contests, Matthews, Jr. dropped in a season-high 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor.
“He was huge in the second half,” Huggins said. “We have been on him since he got here to be a little more assertive and taking the ball at the rim. He obviously took it at the rim a couple times with a lot of strength.”
The Mountaineers have completed a season-opening stretch of five games away from the Coliseum.
“They’re great guys,” Huggins said. “They are not low-maintenance, they are no-maintenance. They do what you ask them to do and they are really good people. If we would go back a few years when we were in the Big East, any road win in the Big East was a great win. To come in to a Big East school and win on the road, last time we came in here we got beat by what seemed like a hundred.”
“I think we are building on something great,” Matthews Jr. said.
“Obviously we didn’t get the one against Gonzaga but we learned off that and built off that. We came in and got one on the road.”
Jahvon Blair led the Hoyas (1-2) with 19 points. Fairmont Senior grad Jalen Bridges made his first field goal as a Mountaineer, with a three-pointer in the first half.
West Virginia (4-1) will play their home opener Wednesday night against Robert Morris.