West Virginia Comes Back to Beat Mizzou

The West Virginia Mountaineers found a way to win a game in a way that’s been unfamiliar to them over the years.  West Virginia got out-rebounded (47-31), only had 6 second chance points and only put up four more shots than the Missouri Tigers.

West Virginia guard Jevon Carter came out hot, hitting his first three – three pointers to start the game and the Mountaineers took a 9-4 lead, four minutes into the game.

Forward Sagaba Konate would get into foul trouble early picking up his second foul in just under four minutes and would sit on the bench the rest of the first half.

The whistles were early and often against the Mountaineers, and they would find themselves in foul trouble in the first half.  Along with Sags, Maciej Bender (2) Daxter Miles Jr (2) and Jevon Carter (3) all found themselves in foul trouble.

Missouri continued their sound shooting from behind the arc, going 8-14 (57.1%) while West Virginia struggled to find their shot (31.1%).

The Tigers would go into halftime with a 5-point lead, 41-36.

West Virginia was getting overwhelmed underneath.  Missouri was killing them on the boards and when the Tigers did get cold from the outside they were racking up the offensive rebounds and adding up the second chance points.

Missouri would slowly start to pull away building a 14-point lead in the first 5 minutes of the second half.

West Virginia would cut the lead to 8, but as quickly as the Mountaineers cut the lead, Missouri built it back up to 16 with 7:58 to go in the game.

The game looked wrapped up for the Tigers after Sags fouled of the game with 4:59 left and Missouri was up 13, but Daxter Miles and Jevon Carter would carry the team on their back.

Jevon Carter would get 11 of his career high 29 points in the final 5 minutes of the game and Daxter Miles would add another 8 points, while Wesley Harris went 4-4 from the free throw line to go on a 24-9 run to end the game.

West Virginia held the Tigers without a field go for 5 minutes and 47 secs, till a put back by Kevin Puryear with 8 seconds left in the game ended the drought.

The Mountaineers free throw shooting has been tremendous this year and it came in clutch to end the game.  Miles, Carter, and Harris combined for 12-13 at the line in the final 5 minutes of the game, and Miles and Carter went 22-23 for the game.

That was a great comeback and done by the veterans, Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles is something special.  A win like this is something to build on going forward and is only going to build confidence for this young team.