WVU Basketball
WVU Basketball Begins Final Stretch with TCU Rematch
WVU basketball kicks off the final two weeks of the regular season by hosting TCU inside the Coliseum tonight looking for revenge.
The Horned Frogs (15-12, 8-8 Big 12) recovered from a double-digit first-half deficit to beat the Mountaineers (16-11, 7-9), 65-60, earlier this month in Forth Worth.
“I thought we started off the game really well defensively,” WVU coach Darian DeVries said of the first meeting. “We built a double-digit lead in the first half and then we let them get to the rim, get to the free throw line. We can’t have that and expect to win the game, especially on the road.”
West Virginia led by as many as a dozen in the first half of that game before TCU battled back to only trail by one, 29-28, at halftime. The Horned Frogs then led for nearly the entire second half en route to the five-point win. TCU shot 23 free throws in the contest, compared to WVU’s five.
TCU now makes the return trip to Morgantown, playing some of its best basketball of the season. The Horned Frogs have won five of their last seven games and had won three straight before losing to Cincinnati Saturday afternoon.
TCU’s backcourt duo of Vasean Allette and Noah Reynolds combined for 42 of the team’s 65 points in the first meeting with the Mountaineers and made over half of TCU’s free throws. They are the Horned Frogs’ top two scorers with Reynolds averaging 12.7 points per game and Allette posting 11.7.
West Virginia has lost three of its last four games and seven of its last 10. A win over the Horned Frogs would go a long way to solidifying the Mountaineers’ spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“It seems like we’re pretty evenly matched,” DeVries said. “It’s like a lot of games in the Big 12, it comes down to who can make more plays on that particular night and I expect (Tuesday) night will be no different.”
WVU basketball and TCU get started late tonight, tipping off from the Coliseum at 9 p.m. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
For a related story, WVU basketball hits lowest KenPom ranking in months.
