MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Leading into Thursday’s renewal of the Backyard Brawl rivalry at Hope Coliseum, first-year WVU head coach Ross Hodge was eager to see how his team would respond against their first power conference opponent after posting three wins in six days to open up the season.
After falling behind by seven points in the first half, West Virginia outscored the Panthers, 57-28 to dominate the 192nd edition of the rivalry, winning 71-49.
“It was great. It was kind of what we expected,” said WVU senior guard Jasper Floyd. “We know how much this game means and meant to the state.”
“Going through some of these earlier games even though they were not the magnitude of a game like this, you still feel that game pressure maybe in a way a little more when you get in these tight games,” Hodge said.
Pittsburgh jumped out to a 21-14 lead, using a 9-0 run midway through the first half. However, the Mountaineers controlled the run of play throughout the rest of the half. An 18-2 run allowed the Mountaineers to build a 34-25 halftime lead.
Freshman DJ Thomas scored all ten of his points in the first half.
“He got singled out when we got together. His promise and his future is beyond the roof,” said WVU senior guard Honor Huff.
“We knew he was a good player. We knew he had talent. Our antenna was up for Huff and [Brenen] Lorient,” Pittsburgh head coach Jeff Capel said.
The lead would grow only larger for the Mountaineers after halftime. West Virginia scored the first 12 points in the second stanza, and they built a 21-point advantage less than four minutes into the second half.
“We’ve been in this situation pretty much every game that we have played dating back to our closed-door scrimmage,” Hodge said. “We had a couple-of-possessions lead and we didn’t start the halves great. I thought we started that half well and extended that run.”
In a stretch ending the first half and opening the second half, Pitt missed 13 consecutive shots.
“We held them under 50. That’s a big thing [Hodge] always harps on,” said Huff.
“Congrats to West Virginia. They played great, especially on the defensive end. Ross has done a great job establishing identity, especially on the defensive side,” said Capel.
“We locked in defensively,” Floyd said. “I think there was a point where they didn’t score for four or five minutes. We really just honed in on our defensive schemes and our assignments. And we executed it. That’s the name of the game.”
Pitt crept within ten points (50-40) at the 11:03 mark. But they would not draw any closer down the stretch.
West Virginia was paced by Harlan Obioha’s 19-point effort. He also led the team with six rebounds.
“These guys have continued with their confidence in me,” Obioha said. “Nothing changed tonight. It wasn’t an anomaly. They just kept telling me the same thing.”
“He kicked our butt tonight,” Capel said of Obioha.
“Our team is balanced,” Hodge said. “So we are going to have to make some choices at times. Are you going to play our forwards single coverage or are you going to double team them? I think Harlan and B-Lo both have the ability, if you just play them one-on-one, they can make good things happen.”
“At the end of the day, we want to win this game and games moving forward for each other in the locker room,” Huff said. “But we understand we want to win it for the people that took their time out to come support and love for us.”
Huff (15 points) and Floyd (13 points) also scored in double digits for West Virginia. Cameron Corhen paced Pitt (3-1) with 12 points and ten rebounds.
The announced crowd was 12,453.
Hodge opened his postgame press conference by offering condolences to the family of miner Steve Lipscomb. The Elkview native, who was missing since Saturday after the Rolling Thunder Mine in Nicholas County was flooded, was found dead Thursday morning
“We had a chance to take our guys to a coal mine in the fall and got a chance to meet a lot of those guys, spend time with a lot of people and hear their stories,” Hodge said. “I heard the news and we talked about it before the game. My thoughts and prayers are with him, his family, his kids. That’s what makes this place special. We are very fortunate and there’s a lot of people that do a lot of things to make our lives better.”
West Virginia will conclude their season-opening five-game homestand Monday when they host Lafayette. The Mountaineers will play two games in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic in South Carolina on November 21 and 23.