Mountaineers Battle but Fall Short Against Baylor

Matchup
FG	23-54	24-53
Field Goal %	42.6	45.3
3PT	6-22	8-21
Three Point %	27.3	38.1
FT	23-34	26-35
Free Throw %	67.6	74.3
Rebounds	33	37
Offensive Rebounds	12	11
Defensive Rebounds	21	26
Team Rebounds	0	0
Assists	11	12
Steals	3	3
Blocks	2	3
Total Turnovers	11	10
Fouls	28	23
Technical Fouls	0	1
Flagrant Fouls	0	0

The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-17, 2-12) dropped their fifth straight game with an 82-75 loss to the Baylor Bears (18-9, 9-5). Redshirt freshman Brandon Knapper was unavailable due to a neck injury and despite having only eight scholarship players available WVU fought to the bitter end.

The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 9-2 lead. Baylor scored eight straight to take the one-point lead before Jordan McCabe answered with the a three, on his way to a career high 14 points and retaking the lead.

Logan Routt had a big four-minute stretch in the first half, playing big underneath for a big six points during that span.

West Virginia was battling the Bears and pushed their lead up to six after Jermain Haley hit a runner in the paint in the final minutes of the first half. WVU held a three-point lead, 40-37 at the half as Haley and Lamont West led the Mountaineers with 10 points.

Lamont West started the second half hitting a mid-range jumper and McCabe was finding his rhythm hitting a jumper of his owning putting the Mountaineers up seven.

Baylor cut the WVU to two moments later after a three from Devonte Bandoo, but freshmen Derek Culver fought his way through some contact for the bucket in the paint and McCabe drilled a three to push the lead back up to seven.

Midway through the second half, Baylor went on an 11-4 run to take a one-point lead with 7:58 remaining, but again it was McCabe with an answer to regain the lead.

This young group of Mountaineers have struggled at the midway point in games this season and typically their opponents take control of the game in these moments. However, WVU continued to respond up until the final minutes of the game.

West Virginia led by four with just over three minutes left in the game and defensive breakdowns led to wide-open back-to-back looks and Mario Kegler hit a three as the Bears took a one-point lead with just two minutes to play.

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins would call a timeout to draw something up. However, coming out of the timeout there were six Mountaineers resulting in a technical foul and the team seeming unraveled from there as Baylor went on to take the seven-point win.

“We missed some shots. It’s not like we didn’t have shots – we had shots – we just didn’t make them.” Commented Huggins after the game on the final minutes of the game. “We didn’t execute very well. They were changing defenses and we got young guys out there you got to coach every dribble it seems like.”

Huggins thought the game turned around to Baylor’s favor when the Mountaineers couldn’t absorb the contact and make shots late in the game.

“Probably when we didn’t score through contact off that flex cut.” Said Huggs. “We had a two-footer and we didn’t score through contact. I think that ties the game again – puts more pressure on them. There was more pressure on them than on us.”

Huggs liked the effort today but youth and inexperience showed in the final minutes.

“We’re playing a lot of young guys and new guys.” Explained Huggins. “It’s hard when you have guys, then you don’t have guys. These guys have been through a lot. I think we can get this thing turned and win some games the rest of the year.”

West Virginia will host TCU Tuesday night at 7:00 pm est inside the WVU Coliseum.