WVU Basketball
WVU Basketball Drops First Big 12 Game to No. 3 Iowa State
The WVU basketball team suffered an 80-59 loss to the No. 3 Iowa State Cyclones on Friday night in its first Big 12 contest this season in Ames, Iowa.
The Mountaineers were without senior forward Brenen Lorient, who is day-to-day with an injury.
WVU won the tip and senior guard Honor Huff cashed in from three with a wide open look from the right corner. The Mountaineers eventually took a 9-4 lead before junior forward Milan Momcilovic made two straight threes for a 10-9 Iowa State lead.
Fifth-year guard Chance Moore made a layup to regain the lead before senior guard Treysen Eaglestaff drilled a contested three-pointer for a 14-10 WVU lead.
The Mountaineers took a 19-15 lead with 9:22 remaining in the first half before a 13-2 run for a 28-21 with 5:12 remaining.
WVU scored seven points the rest of the way, being outscored 28-11 in the last 10 minutes of the second half, creating a 41-28 halftime deficit. Moore led the way for WVU in scoring with 10.
Huff opened second half scoring once more with three free throws after being fouled. The first WVU field goal of the second half came at the 15:33 mark when Moore made a second-chance layup to cut the Cyclone lead to 47-36. WVU had six points from the free throw line before the score from Moore.
The Cyclones added another five-point swing which included Momcilovic’s fourth three-pointer on five attempts, forcing a WVU timeout with a 52-36 lead. Moore added another layup before a seven-point run from Iowa State, resulting in a towering 59-38 lead.
The Mountaineers found a scoring rhythm for an 8-6 run, but the Cyclones were too much and pulled away. WVU fell 80-59 behind a career night from Momcilovic, who shot 8-10 from three-point range.
Moore led the Mountaineers with 17 points.
WVU basketball will play again at 7 p.m. on Jan. 6 at the Hope Coliseum when the Mountaineers host the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Find more coverage of WVU basketball at WV Sports Now.
Crockett
January 2, 2026 at 11:24 pm
Going to be a long season.
We don’t have the horses to compete in the Big 12 this year.
Props to the players for playing hard and giving their best.
Tom
January 2, 2026 at 11:46 pm
Where is the grit, the fire that we’re used to seeing the Mountaineers play? Don’t necessarily expect these guys to win but certainly expect a better effort than this C’mon Coach. Light a damn fire under these guys ……
Don Hamrick
January 2, 2026 at 11:47 pm
Pathetic! Not competitive. Pitiful excuse for offense. Way too much standing around and nobody can shoot the ball. Hodge should have realized long ago that Huff is not going to get open shots like he did against D2 teams and when he did he couldn’t hit them. Undersized and under talented for this league.
jackson five
January 3, 2026 at 12:15 am
ross said,, we’re a man short, and that was big, and they deserve to be ranked that high, being short one man put the edge to them, but we fought hard and if we rebounded better, limited turnovers, and made some shots for a change , we ould have beaten them,, but we’ll go home ,look at film and fix all of our problems,,we just gave them too many good shots and we didn’t play defense,,,,, that’s ross’s statement,, he added , our players did not do what we told them to do……now we’ll hear this about 14 more times this yr,,,and then ross will have four more yrs to figure it out…
Nazmo King
January 3, 2026 at 10:48 am
I predict we will win 3 Big 12 games this year.
jackson five
January 3, 2026 at 3:53 pm
i picked 4 wins in the big12
jackson five
January 4, 2026 at 2:36 pm
IF HODGE PODGE DOESN’T START CHASE FROM NOW ON , THEN HE’S BRAIN DEAD,,
HE SEEMS TO BE THE BEST PLAYER ON THE FLOOR,, IF WE WAIT AND USE HIM AS THE 6 TH MAN OFF THE BENCH, WE’LL BE 15 PTS BEHIND BEFORE HE GETS A CHANCE,,,,, THIS BENCH PITS CRAP IS JUST THAT,, GET THE MAN IN THERE , GIVE HIM MORE MINUTES, AND LET SOMEONE ELSE TRY TO SALVAGE A GAME AFTER WE’RE 15 PITS BEHIND,,, SIMPLY DON’T GET WHAT GOES THRU HODGE PODGE’S BRAIN AT TIMES,,, THE IS THE BIG 12 , TOP TO BOTTOM PROBABLY THE BEST BASK. BALL CONF. AND HODGE IS WORRYING ABOUT BENCH PTS.. GET OVER IT HODGE, THIS IS BIG TIME BALL, NOT NTS BALL, SO DO SOMETHING EVEN IF IT’S WRONG,, WE’RE ONLY GOING TO WIN 5 MORE GAMES SO FIND OUT NOW WHAT YOU GOT,, THOSE TWO FRESHMEN WILL TRANSFER,,, IF YOU DON’T PLAY THEM ALOT,,, SO WE START OVER AGAIN NEXT YR, IF YOU CAN’T KEEP THEM,,,THIS IS SO SAD,, WE’RE TERRIBLE IN FOOTBALL, TERRIBLE IN BASKETBALL, AND STUDENT POPULATION IS CRASHING,, WVU OVERALL, NOT LOOKING GOOD AT ALL, AND WE HAVE AN OVER THE HILL FOOTBALL COACH, AND A NOT SO QUALIFIED BASKET BALL COACH, BOTH TO BRING US INTO THE BLACK,, REMAINS TO BE SEEN, .BUT NO MATTER WHO BAD WE ARE, I’M STIL A GREAT EER…… AND DON’T START BLAMING THE PLAYERS FOR LOSSES,, THAT’S AN OLD HUGGIE BEAR METHOD, AND WE DIDN’T LIKE IT ONE BIT