Ross Hodge Questions WVU’s Urgency in Second Half at Kansas State

After leading at halftime, WVU basketball gave up a 21-point scoring run to the Kansas State Wildcats in a 65-63 losing effort Tuesday night.

The Kansas State scoring run took over eight minutes. However, WVU held Kansas State scoreless for six minutes in the first half and only managed to get 10 points out of it. As WVU took a three-point lead into halftime, head coach Ross Hodge said he felt there was opportunity for a larger lead.

“On our end, felt like we had some opportunities early in the first half and felt like we probably should have been, had an opportunity to be up a little more than just three in the first half when they were kind of trying to find their footing and we just couldn’t make the plays necessary,” Hodge said in the postgame press conference.

The second half was a different story, as Hodge mentioned Kansas State was more physical than the Mountaineers. He specifically mentioned one play where senior wing Khamari McGriff won the battle for a loose ball.

Overall, Hodge said Kansas State’s urgency was better than WVU’s in the second half.

“I thought the, the urgency with which they were playing with to beat us to loose balls. There was a lot of plays, but I thought the play was symbiotic of us in that second half when McGriff blocked our pass and we had five or six feet in front of him to go get the loose ball and he beat us to that loose ball and then made a crazy- made a tough finish at the end of it,” Hodge said.

“I thought that play symbolized that entire stretch and in a lot of ways that was the difference in the game.”

West Virginia will take the court again at 8 p.m. on Friday when the team hosts UCF on Senior Night.

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