Mountaineers Win in a Tough Game Against Fordham

Matchup
FG Made-Attempted	23-54	30-66
Field Goal %	42.6	45.5
3PT Made-Attempted	7-23	10-30
Three Point %	30.4	33.3
FT Made-Attempted	16-19	16-24
Free Throw %	84.2	66.7
Total Rebounds	28	44
Offensive Rebounds	7	18
Defensive Rebounds	21	26
Team Rebounds	0	0
Assists	12	21
Steals	9	8
Blocks	1	5
Total Turnovers	17	14
Personal Fouls	24	18
Technical Fouls	0	0
Flagrant Fouls	0	0

The West Virginia Mountaineers (11-1) held off the Fordham Rams (5-7) 86-69.  It was a better game than most people expected at the Coliseum.  The Rams arguably played their best game of the year, standing toe to toe with the 10^th ranked Mountaineers.

It was a challenge for West Virginia to find some offense at times, and Fordham associate head coach Rodney Crawford, may have had something to do with that, “Rodney Crawford is a heck of a coach.  Rodney Played for me and he’s Jeff’s right-hand guy (Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer), he knows everything we do, I haven’t changed things, so he knows all that stuff, so they kind of set on it”, said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins after the game.

It was a battle from the beginning, and the Mountaineers where struggling to find some offense, but Daxter Miles would put the team on his back scoring 8 of the first 10 points, to start the game.

Fordham would respond and would go on a 7-0 run, and take the lead, 16-15 with 13:25 to play in the first half.

West Virginia looked like they were going to break the game open, with a 19-5 run in a little under five minutes of play, extending their lead to 16, but the Rams refused to give up.

The Rams would hit three straight three-pointers to cut the lead to five, before Jevon Carter would drive the ball down the lane for a lay-up to end the half, giving West Virginia, a 7-point lead going into halftime 46-39.

Fordham had their best offensive output of the season in the first half.  The came into the game shooting 27.7% from behind the arc and 67.7% from the free throw line, but in the first half they shot 50% (5-10) from three and 87.5% (14-16) from the charity strip.  You can also add shooting 47.6% from the field.

Fordham’s Joseph Chartouny had 12 of his 16 points in the first half.

Both teams struggled to take care of the ball, the Rams had 12 turnovers and the Mountaineers with 11.

In the second half, both teams would start to clean up the turnovers, but despite the best offensive performance of they year by the Rams in the first half, they would start to cool down in the second half, shooting 39.4% from the field.

Fordham would get on the board first with a Will Tavares lay-up. but two three pointers by Wesley Harris and a Daxter Miles Jr free throw, would again extend the lead into double figures, 53-41.

The Ram’s Will Tavares single handedly kept the Rams within striking distance the second half scoring 16 of his 18 total points after the break.

Fordham would continue to test the Mountaineers, cutting their lead to just 6 with 6:51 to go in the game, but another 7-0 run by West Virginia, was too much for the Rams.

West Virginia would maintained their double-digit lead and slowly extended it to win the game by 17.

Two Mountaineers had double-doubles in the game.  Jevon Carter had 10 points and 12 assists, and Sagaba Konate with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Daxter Miles Jr led all scorers with 21 points and 3 other Mountaineers reached double figures, Lamont West (15), James “Beetle” Bolden (11) and Wesley Harris (10).