Hodge, Huff Analyze WVU Basketball Win Over UC: ‘It Takes What it Takes’

WVU basketball survived a road game against Cincinnati where the Mountaineers trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half.

The deficit came from a slow start, a trend WVU has struggled to beat in recent games. Head coach Ross Hodge mentioned that in his postgame press conference after WVU started the game down 2-14.

“I don’t know if either half we adjusted very well to the starts. We didn’t start very well at either half,” Hodge said. “And again, that’s something that we have been evaluating. We have been looking at, I mean we’ve almost talked to it at nauseam now and just gotta figure out a better way to get off to better starts and have a higher sense of urgency.”

The WVU offense was resuscitated by senior guard Honor Huff, who scored 14 straight points for WVU in just under four minutes of game time. Huff credited the scoring surge to

“I think I did a better job today of just kind of letting the game come to me,” Huff said in the postgame press conference. “I think sometimes this season in particular, there’s times where I try to force it … So to be able to chip away at it and see some go through the basket, it just opens up my game and then the rest of the team.”

WVU has had multiple games where it needed to overcome scoring droughts and stalling offense, but Hodge said he welcomes whatever challenges a particular game may bring. He mentioned how the team’s 62-60 win against Cincinnati on Jan. 6 was also a defensive battle.

“Like I tell these guys all the time, let’s beat somebody 52-48 then if that’s what it takes. It takes what it takes and we’ll have nights where everybody plays great, we make a ton of shots and maybe you score 86, 85,”  Hodge said.

“But to the group’s credit, I thought we were able to just continually get stops and  in that stretches and in both situations at our place the last four minutes of the game and then this one down the stretch, we’re able to get stops and grab the rebound.”

WVU basketball will take the court again when it hoss No. 15 Texas Tech at noon on Sunday.

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