MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With many of West Virginia’s top offensive threats struggling to find the bottom of the basket against TCU, former Fairmont Senior Polar Bear Jalen Bridges authored his best game as a Mountaineer as WVU held off the Horned Frogs, 76-67 at the Colseum.
The redshirt freshman led the Mountaineers in both points and rebounds. It was the latest in a string of quality games for the youngest member of WVU’s starting lineup. Bridges collected his first double-double with career highs of 22 points and a dozen rebounds.
“As the season has gone on, I have gotten way more comfortable out there,” Bridges said. “The speed of the game has slowed down to me now. I am just taking what comes to me. I am not really try to force it out there. I am just trying to be as active as possible, trying to do everything I can to help my team win.”
“(Bridges) is a guy who gets in the gym, but he works on what you ask him to work on. He is getting better and better and better because of that,” said WVU head coach Bob Huggins. “He knows what he can do and what he can’t. So he really tries to accentuate the positives and stay away from the negatives.”
West Virginia fell behind by a basket just over two minutes into the game but a 15-1 run gave them a lead they would never relinquish. After being held without a field goal in Tuesday’s game against Baylor, Derek Culver was active early. He scored 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in the first half.
Bridges ended the first half a rebound shy of a double-double. He scored a dozen points and grabbed 9 boards while going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc in the first twenty minutes. West Virginia led 32-18 at the half, holding TCU to just 4-for-22 shooting from the field.
The Mountaineers were never able to comfortably pull away in the second half. TCU outscored the Mountaineers 49-44 in the second half as the Frogs connected on 17-of-32 shots from the floor. TCU crept within seven points on two different occasions.
“To be honest, I don’t feel like we ever threw a knockout punch,” Culver said. “I feel like we just ended up living off talent and being the better team. We weren’t trying to execute to the best of our ability. We got the win. We’ll go back and fix it.”
With 2:30 to go, Bridges knocked down his fifth triple of the game which extended the Mountaineer lead to 13 points at 67-54. Bridges went 5-for-8 from three-point range.
“This summer, I really went hard. I reworked all my mechanics,” Bridges said. “I say I used to shoot it (three-pointers) way better in seventh grade.”
Culver scored 17 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Sean McNeil scored 14 points while Deuce McBride added 10.
WVU junior guard Jordan McCabe was sidelined with a lower back injury and is listed as day-to-day.
Jaedon Ledee led TCU (12-12, 5-10) with 20 points. 17 of his points came in the second half.
Bob Huggins collected career victory No. 899. West Virginia (18-7, 11-5 Big 12) will wrap up the regular season and their four-game homestand Saturday against Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers erased a 19-point deficit to defeat the Cowboys in Stillwater, 87-84 on January 4. West Virginia can secure second place in the Big 12 with a victory.
“We lost big pieces but we just kept on moving like we didn’t lose a piece. Hats off to my teammates and coaches. They are just really good at figuring things out on the fly,” Culver said.
(Bob Huggins postgame Zoom conference)