Mountaineers Roll Over Tech
December 30, 2014 04:52 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This time the Mountaineers didn’t quit playing. During last year’s game against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, West Virginia jumped out to a big early lead before eventually losing by five to the Hokies.
Today, WVU kept its foot on the gas pedal and ran out-manned Virginia Tech right out of the gym, 82-51, in front 13,330 here at the WVU Coliseum.
“Our whole thing is attitude and effort,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “Our guys have had a terrific attitude and they’ve given terrific effort. If we don’t have that attitude and effort then we’re not very good because we’re not a highly skilled team.”
West Virginia’s smothering full-court pressure defense produced 16 steals and forced 25 Hokie turnovers that resulted in 37 points.
Tech, which trailed by just three at halftime, scored 21 points and shot just 39.1 percent in the second half.
“I thought we took them very lightly (in the first half),” said Huggins. “We weren’t sharp. We didn’t get to the ball the way we have been getting to the ball and just missed a ton of shots that are very makeable shots.”
Just about every stat category was favorable for the 17th-ranked Mountaineers, including:
- Field goal percentage: West Virginia 50.8%, Virginia Tech 46.5%
- Field goal attempts: West Virginia 59, Virginia Tech 43
- 3-Point field goals: West Virginia 10, Virginia Tech 4
- Rebounding: West Virginia 36, Virginia Tech 22
- Assists: West Virginia 21, Virginia Tech 4
- Steals: West Virginia 16, Virginia Tech 7
- Points off turnovers: West Virginia 37, Virginia Tech 12
Juwan Staten led everyone with 18 points, including three of four from 3, which was nice to see. Gary Browne added 12 on four of six shooting.
“Wanny made some big, big shots for us to kind of get us going,” said Huggins. “Gary made some big shots for us to get us going and I thought Nate Adrian played great. When we substituted Nate for Jon Holton I thought he was terrific.”
Devin Williams grabbed a game-best 11 rebounds – the fourth time this year he’s pulled down more than 10 rebounds in a game.
Twelve different players scored, seven different players made 3s and 14 different guys got into the game for the Mountaineers.
“You can’t really help so much off of a particular guy,” said Huggins of his team’s offensive balance. “(Defenses) have a tendency of really trying to gap everything on Wanny to keep him from getting the ball to the goal and when we have different guys make shots and we have different guys that are capable of making shots then that kind of opens things up for his penetration a little more.”
Adam Smith and Stachel Pierce led Virginia Tech, now 8-5, with 10 points each.
West Virginia (12-1) is now done with regular season non-conference action and will begin Big 12 play on the road at undefeated TCU on Saturday.
“I would assume with us coming in there being in the top 20 that they’ll have a great, great crowd,” said Huggins. “They’ve got good players. I’ve watched them on tape a little bit.”
The Horned Frogs are now 13-0 following yesterday’s 20-point win over Tennessee State.
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