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Mountaineers Grill Longhorns in 38-Point Rout

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Following a dreadful performance on Saturday at Kansas State, the Wet Virginia Mountaineers (15-3, 4-2 Big 12) returned home Monday evening with a vengeance, defeating the Texas Longhorns (12-6, 2-4) 97-59.

It was a close, two-point game through the first seven and a half minutes, but following a Longhorn three-pointer to make the score 15-13 WVU, the Mountaineers went on a 28-2 run over the next 10 minutes to essentially put the game away in the first half.

The first half was total dominance by West Virginia. The Mountaineers had the edge over the Longhorns in turnovers (12-2), points off turnovers (17-0), rebounds (28-12), fouls (16-7) and steals (7-0).

Everything that went wrong against Kansas State seemed to be fixed for Monday’s game, with only one day, Sunday, of practice in between. West Virginia turned the ball over 18 times and committed 24 personal fouls against the Wildcats. That was cleaned up to just eight turnovers and 16 fouls against Texas.

Texas, on the other hand, was out of control during much of the game. The Longhorns committed 18 turnovers and 25 fouls in the game.

WVU coach Bob Huggins used a shorter bench in the game, leading to a more balanced offensive attack from WVU. Instead of the usual 12-man rotation, Huggins went only nine or 10 deep for much of the game Monday night.

Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver led the team with 13 points each. Tshiebwe also had 11 rebounds and Culver had eight. Jermaine Haley scored 12 points on 6-10 shooting. Emmitt Matthews Jr. broke out of his scoring slump with eight points, his most since Dec. 14. Jordan McCabe scored a season-high 10 points.

As a team WVU out-rebounded the Longhorns 53-25.

West Virginia’s next game is Saturday against Missouri as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Tip-off from the WVU Coliseum is set for noon.

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