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Cold-Shooting Mountaineers Fall to Texas
January 20, 2016 09:57 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Javan Felix scored 17 points to lead Texas to a 56-49 victory over sixth-ranked West Virginia on a snowy Wednesday night in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers were ranked fourth in the country in scoring averaging 84.2 points per game heading into this week’s action, but West Virginia was nowhere close to that tonight against the Longhorns because of poor shooting – from everywhere.
WVU was 16 of 40 on its two-point tries, three of 21 on its threes and was disappointing eight of 23 from the foul throw line.
Texas (12-6, 4-2) wasn’t that much better, shooting 39 percent overall and missing 12 free throws, but the Longhorns made up the difference on their six three-point field goals - the big one coming from Felix with 1:38 left in the game to make it a seven-point game - and the 14-point advantage they had at the free throw line.
There were three ties and six lead changes, but the Longhorns led for the majority of the game.
“Over the years when I didn’t think our guys were ready to play there were two glaring things – missing easy shots and missing free throws,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We weren’t ready to play. We had a horrible practice yesterday to the point where I just told them to get out.”
Devin Williams, who led West Virginia with 11 points and 11 rebounds, made two free throws to to pull the Mountaineers to within two at the beginning of the second half, but Texas answered with four straight to take a five-point lead.
The Longhorns were able to keep their margin in the five-to-six-point range until 8:51 left when West Virginia had its best offensive sequence of the game.
A steal by Elijah Macon led to Jaysean Paige layup, Jonathan Holton added another close one and then Daxter Miles Jr. made a straight away three to tie the game at 42 with 6:20 left.
Following a timeout, Texas answered with a Shaquille Cleare dunk on a pretty Felix no-look pass, and Connor Lammert banged in a three to push the Longhorn lead back to five and force Huggins to take a 30-second timeout. Jevon Carter was able to hit a three following the stoppage of play to pull the Mountaineers to within two, but Felix took over the game from there.
Forward Devin Williams led West Virginia with 11 points and 11 rebounds during Wednesday night's loss to Texas (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo).
The senior followed his own miss along the baseline to make it 49-45 with 2:49 left; he hit two free throws to keep it a four-point game, and then turned the lights out on the Mountaineers with his three with 1:38 remaining.
West Virginia (15-3, 4-2) is mired in a three-game shooting slump that has seen the Mountaineers make just 36 percent of its field goal attempts, and only 46.7 percent from the free throw line in its last two losses to Oklahoma and Texas.
WVU’s four-guard rotation of Carter, Miles, Paige and Phillip combined to shoot just six-of-35 from the floor tonight.
“It’s amazing how much your attitude not only affects your performance, but also your outlook on things,” said Huggins. “You see this coming and I’ve done this for a long, long, long, long time and I don’t know how to stop it.
“I want to apologize to all of the people who fought very inclement weather, went through the snow, traffic and all of that to get here and watch that … it’s an embarrassment,” Huggins added. “I’m embarrassed. It took something for the people to get here and I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate it.”
A crowd of 9,881 watched tonight's game.
The Mountaineers have very little time to work out their issues with a trip to Lubbock to face vastly improved Texas Tech on the horizon this Saturday. The Red Raiders are coming off a 76-69 victory over TCU two nights ago and are looking to even their Big 12 record to 4-4 with a win against West Virginia this weekend.
West Virginia is now in a four-way tie with Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas for second place in the league standings with 4-2 records.
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