Ross Hodge Details Early Defensive Issues, Offensive Struggles Against Baylor

WVU basketball was held to its second-lowest scoring total this season after just 23 points in the second half against Baylor, falling 63-53 to the Bears.

The Mountaineers went down early, trailing 15-5 in the first half and 38-30 at halftime. These starts have become a trend in recent games, something head coach Ross Hodge says needs to be fixed.

“I thought our urgency defensively to start the game wasn’t at the level that it needed to be,” Hodge said in the postgame press conference.

“And then you start letting them get into a rhythm, start making some threes and dig ourselves a hole which has now started to kind of become a little bit of a trend the last four games. Been down double-digits and you just can’t continuously play with fire like that.”

WVU’s struggles Saturday included a seven-minute scoring drought in the second half. While the defense held Baylor scoreless for a portion of that time as well, the Mountaineers didn’t have enough firepower to beat the deficit.

Hodge said defense becomes even more important when the offense struggles in that way.

“You keep stopping them. You gotta stop them for longer periods of time… But it felt like during that stretch, it was a combination of having some pretty good looks that we just couldn’t get to go down and then having some possessions that were poorly coached possessions,” Hodge added.

During the dry spell, WVU missed six shots and turned the ball over five times. Hodge emphasized taking better advantage of opportunities and learning from Saturday going forward.

“We had several opportunities to cut into it further, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. And then they made some shots late, we had some defensive breakdowns and when we did break down, they made it,” Hodge said. “So, to their credit, they did what they needed to do. They executed better, coaches coached better, players played better, and we’ll have to learn from it.”

WVU basketball will play again at 7 p.m. on Thursday when the Mountaineers travel to Cincinnati.

Find more coverage of Ross Hodge and WVU basketball at WV Sports Now.