Ross Hodge Emphasizes Loose-Ball Effort After WVU Basketball Loss to No. 13 Texas Tech

WVU basketball failed to rally late in a 70-63 loss to No. 13 Texas Tech on Sunday afternoon in Morgantown. Despite struggling from the floor and from the free-throw line, head coach Ross Hodge said failure to secure loose balls early was his “biggest disappointment” in his postgame press conference.

“I view it as, despite going 2-for-22 and despite going 13-for-23 from the foul line, which you can’t always control, you had eight loose balls to grab, and if you would’ve grabbed four of those loose balls, maybe you beat them 63-59,” Hodge said.

WVU started the game down 6-1 and eventually cut it to 6-5 while the Red Raiders extended the lead to double-digits later in the half. Unlike previous games, Hodge said the team started better from a scoring standpoint, but several early points for Texas Tech came from winning loose balls.

“In some of the previous games, we weren’t stopping at the level that I would’ve liked, and we weren’t scoring,” Hodge said. “So we were able to score, and it was, again, to me,  it was just more… 50-50 balls, loose balls. If you go back and you watch the first eight minutes of that game, they got just about every single one of them.”

Hodge said the loose ball control was not indicative of the team’s overall effort, as the Mountaineers closed the gap but could not take the lead in the final minutes. He added how the team continues to fight no matter the circumstances.

“I appreciate immensely how hard this group fights. And when things look about as bleak as it could be, they’ve been able to respond,” Hodge said. And I admire that part about them, but the truth is, the goal is to win the game, and you should play hard because that’s what you should do, and you got to play better. But I have come to expect positive responses from this group because they’ve shown it time and time again”

WVU basketball will take the court again when it visits UCF at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

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