Ross Hodge Labels WVU’s Exhibition Loss to Maryland a ‘Tale of Two Halves’

WVU basketball fell in its exhibition game against Maryland 90-81 after leading by as many as 19 points.

Head coach Ross Hodge addressed his team’s play in his postgame press conference, mentioning it’s an example of how quickly momentum can shift.

“Felt like it was obviously a tale of two halves. I told our team kind of couldn’t be more on display of how you can, why and how you build leads and how and why you lose leads,” Hodge said in the postgame press conference.

Hodge specifically noted the physicality and how that impacted the rest of the game from a rebounding standpoint.

“I think as a team we kind of had it going on the in the first half, and then second half, they hit a lot of shots. They had a lot of physicality, a lot of offensive rebounding,” said Hodge.

“And I mean, at that point, it just kind of slows down your transition offense and your ability to kind of get in the paint and kick out and get easier shots and easier looks for our team. It was two halves. They had it going in the second half and we didn’t really bounce back the way we wanted to,” he said.

Hodge also said fatigue may have played a part in the physicality difference, and he believes the Mountaineers had the edge in that category in the first half.

“Some of it’s the ability to play through fatigue. That’s a big part of it, you know. It’s a little easier to hit somebody when you’re fresh and mentally you’re fresh and the game’s happening and you’re really— I mean, again, I haven’t watched the film yet, but I would imagine in the first half we were physical on the ball, shots went up, we had an attention to detail, you go hit them,” Hodge said.

WVU will play another exhibition game at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, at Glenville State.

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