Bear Down; WVU to Face Baylor
February 27, 2015 10:34 AM | General
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(22-6)
(21-7)MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - With two weeks left in the regular season, West Virginia remains in the hunt for the Big 12 regular season championship.
The Mountaineers are currently in a three-way tie with Iowa State and Oklahoma for second place in the conference standings one game behind league leader Kansas.
“That’s what you want. It’s in our hands now,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “You’re not sitting here saying, ‘well if so-and-so beats this team and that team beats that team then we can have a chance if we do this.’ It’s not that. We kind of control our own destiny. When everybody looked at the backend of our schedule and said, ‘wow, look at that’ I said to our guys, ‘what a great opportunity.’”
Indeed, the opportunity is there for West Virginia to seize its first conference title since joining the Big 12 three years ago in 2012, but the path to get there is full of hazards, beginning with Saturday’s game at Baylor, which is still in the hunt in fourth place a game out of second and two games out of first.
The first time these two teams met in Morgantown earlier this month, the Bears went through West Virginia’s full-court press like a hot knife through butter. Baylor had a 10-point lead four minutes into the game and had a 20-point lead by the third media time out of the first half.
“We did a terrible job in pressure and we did a terrible job rotating out of pressure,” said Huggins of his team’s first meeting against the Bears, an 87-69 loss. “We got down and I think we tried to catch up all at once. We got it to where it seemingly could have been manageable, but we just needed another basket or another steal to get it to single digits and that never happened.”
Rico Gathers was as good as advertised, scoring 17 points and grabbing 17 rebounds while Royce O’Neale and Taurean Prince combined to score 32 points, mostly out on the perimeter and in transition.
Prince and O’Neale played well earlier this week against Iowa State, combining to score 30 points in helping the Bears to a rare win in Ames.
“They’re making shots. They have really shot the ball well - 14-of-26 (from 3) I think it was against Iowa State - and shot it terrific here against us,” said Huggins. “Then you watch the Oklahoma State game there and Oklahoma State made a bunch of 3s in the second half and Baylor couldn’t buy one.”
Oklahoma State and Kansas were the only two games Baylor has lost at home this year. As Huggins mentioned, Oklahoma State made its 3-point shots and Baylor didn’t, the Cowboys knocking down 9-of-24 from behind the arc while Baylor made just 3-of-15.
In the Kansas loss Baylor made its 3s (8 of 15) but not the close ones, going 18-of-53 overall for just 34 percent.
The Jayhawks were able to get some late-game heroics from Wayne Seldon to knock off the Bears in Waco.
West Virginia has not fared well against Baylor, the Mountaineers winning just one of five since joining the Big 12, but that one victory did come in Waco last year. Juwan Staten scored 15 points, handed out nine assists and made the winning shot with three seconds left in the game.
The Mountaineers were able to overcome Baylor’s impressive length and athleticism that day, something West Virginia will have to do once again this Saturday.
“They’ve got great length. They do a great job in their zone,” said Huggins. “Rico Gathers is a beast in the paint, but their others guys have stepped up and made shots. Their guards are good at penetrating and pitching and have been outstanding for them.”
Prince (13.3 ppg.), senior guard Kenny Chery (11.5 ppg.) and Gathers (11.1 ppg.) are Baylor’s top scorers, but the Bears are also getting 9.8 points per game off the bench from O’Neale.
Baylor (21-7) comes into Saturday’s game on a three-game winning streak, as are the Mountaineers (22-6).
West Virginia has two players averaging double figures in Staten (14.5 ppg.) and sophomore forward Devin Williams (11.0 ppg.).
Junior forward Jonathan Holton is coming off a 12-point, six-rebound effort against Texas earlier this week to boost his season averages to 7.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Freshman guard Jevon Carter is averaging 8.2 points per game and leads the team with 50 steals.
Following Saturday’s game, West Virginia travels to Lawrence, Kansas to play the Jayhawks on Tuesday night and then wraps up the regular season at home against Oklahoma State.
Saturday’s Baylor game will tip off at 4 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s pregame coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and also online through leanStream and the mobile app WVU GameDay.
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