Box Score

West Virginia came back from 16 points down in the second half to knock off Missouri, 83-79, in the championship game of the AdvoCare Invitational played at HP Field House tonight in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
 
West Virginia's senior guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. were the difference in the impressive comeback victory. Carter scored West Virginia's first nine points and finished with a career-high 29, while Miles Jr. added 26.
 
"What I was really happy about - and I've been on JC and Dax a lot - and I told them, 'This is your team,'" West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "I knew the Daxter Miles that I thought I had and I believed was in there somewhere ... he finally came out. He played."
 
It was Carter and Miles who keyed West Virginia's frenetic finish, harassing Missouri's ball handlers into committing nine turnovers over the final 7:19. Missouri turned it over a total of 20 times for the game.
 
A Jontay Porter layup with 7:58 left gave the Tigers a 68-52 lead and forced Huggins to call timeout.
 
"We tried 1-3-1; we had tried some pressure before; we tried to double ball screens; we tried to push up ball screens; we tried to string out ball screens and none of it worked," Huggins explained afterward. "I said, 'Fellas, I guess we are what we are so let's just go get 'em and let the chips fall where they may.'"
 
So they did.
 
Carter picked guard Jordan Geist's pocket after Geist tried to throw the ball off him on an inbound pass and drove in for a layup.

That play lit the Mountaineers' fuse. 

Another Carter steal led to a pair of free throws with 4:39 left to reduce Missouri's lead to 73-64. Two more Carter steals turned into four straight transition points and a five-point deficit with 4:11 to go.
 
Another Mizzou turnover, this one coming from forward Kevin Puryear, led to a Miles Jr. jumper to make the score 73-70. Miles Jr. then took the ball away from Geist and drove in for a layup to make it a one-point game with 3:18 left.
 
"They kind of pulled back a little bit and got a little conservative and that's a bad thing to do against pressure, because that pressure just comes at you," Huggins said. "You get afraid to make a mistake but we really made some plays."
 
Following two Wesley Harris free throws with 1:28 remaining to keep it a one-point game, Harris got a piece of Kassius Robertson's shot attempt at the other end and Lamont West grabbed the rebound. He got the ball to Carter, who worked his way to the top of the key and hit a contested 3 to give West Virginia a 77-75 lead, its first of the second half.

After missing a free throw, Geist fouled Miles Jr., who added two more free throws at the other end to make it 79-75.
 
It became a free throw shooting contest after Puryear's uncontested layup with eight seconds left. Miles Jr. and Carter hit two each to ice the Mountaineers' best win of the young season.
 
The two combined to hit 22 of their 25 free throw attempts. Overall, West Virginia was 31-of-35 from the line, which helped compensate for Missouri's sizable advantage on the glass.
 
The Tigers outrebounded West Virginia, 47-31, leading to 22 second-chance points. Missouri also hit 12 of 30 from 3, but cooled off considerably from behind the arc late in the game when West Virginia turned up its defensive pressure.
 
Harris grabbed 10 rebounds and contributed 9 points for the Mountaineers, now 6-1.
 
Carter and Miles Jr. had four steals apiece and West Virginia had 13, which resulted in 25 points including 12 on fast breaks.

"The crazy thing is I'm (complaining) about our offense - and justifiably so - and we still score 83," Huggins said.
 
Carter was the tournament MVP and Miles Jr. made the all-tournament team.
 
Sophomore center Sagaba Konate got two quick fouls and sat out most of the first half. He ended up playing just 16 minutes before fouling out with just two points and one rebound.

"When Sags got in ... when you sit over there it's hard," Huggins said. "The one time they get the rebound basket to put them back within one or something like that, Sags is literally standing at half court. He's got to have the transformation that Elijah (Macon) had for us a year ago. Elijah wasn't very good at the beginning and he kept getting better and better and that's what we've got to get from Sags."
 
Missouri (5-2) got 21 points and 11 rebounds from Jordan Barnett. Robertson and Puryear scored 13 each.
 
West Virginia returns to the Coliseum to face New Jersey Tech on Thursday night at 7 p.m. That game will be televised locally on AT&T SportsNet.