MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Florida shot 55 percent from the floor in the second half and broke open a tie game with four minutes to play, knocking off the Mountaineers 85-80 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum.
Tied at 75 with four minutes to play, Florida used a corner 3-pointer from Scottie Lewis and a 3-point play from Colin Castleton to take an 81-75 lead that they would not relinquish.
“When the shots don’t go in, you are not going to win,” said WVU head coach Bob Huggins. “When all your shots come from the perimeter and you go 1-for-2 from the free throw line consistently as we did in the second half, you are not going to win hard games like this. As poorly as we shot the ball, and as poorly as we shot from the free throw line, it is amazing we were even in the game as long as we were in the game.”
Neither team led by more than four points until the final seconds of the first half. The lead changed hands 13 times in the opening twenty minutes. 25 personal fouls were called in a half that took just over an hour to complete.
West Virginia scored the final six points of the half to take a 42-37 lead into the locker room. Derek Culver scored half of WVU’s 42 first-half points. He was 6-for-6 from the field and 9-for-11 from the free throw line.
Florida went on the game’s longest scoring run early in the second half. An 8-0 burst gave the Gators a 61-58 lead with 13 minutes left as Florida connected on seven consecutive field goal attempts.
West Virginia would quickly retake the lead, surging ahead 70-67 at the 8-minute mark. A triple from Tre Mann however would even the score at 70 with 7:25 left. Florida would not trail after the 7-minute mark.
The Gators made 7 of their last 12 shots from the floor while the Mountaineers went cold late, connecting on just 4 of their last 20. The Mountaineers were outscored 48-38 in the second half.
“We let them get started,” Huggins said. “We didn’t guard them coming out at halftime. And they’re good. They’ve got really good players and they got us spread. We just didn’t play with a lot of aggression.
“Defense to a large degree is about heart, about competing. When you don’t compete, you get exposed.”
“We were helping Florida beat us by doing little dumb mistakes,” Culver said.
“We gave up a lot of good looks. We had some errors within our defense. But they also made some tough ones. We closed out on a few of them. We knew Locke could shoot it and Mann could get going. They hit shots late and obviously it hurt us.” McNeil said.
Culver scored 21 of his career-high 27 points in the first half. He also pulled down a dozen rebounds. Culver went 14-for-17 from the foul line.
McNeil was 5-for-11 from 3-point range en route to a 21-point game. Taz Sherman was WVU’s other double-figure scorer. He had 11 points.
Castelton led the Gators (10-4) with 21 points. Noah Locke added 19 points for the visitors while Tyree Appleby added a dozen.
Former WVU point guard Darris Nichols made his return to the Coliseum. Nichols is in his sixth season on staff with the Gators.
West Virginia (11-5, 4-3) will visit Iowa State Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
(Bob Huggins postgame Zoom conference)