Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Texas Tech overcame some frigid shooting to outlast West Virginia 62-59 in tonight's foul-plagued, turnover-marred Big 12 opener at the WVU Coliseum.
 
The two teams combined to commit 50 fouls and mishandle the basketball 35 times, but the Mountaineers were far more generous by committing 22 turnovers. Those 22 miscues led to 27 of the Red Raiders' 62 points. 
 
"We are very charitable," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "People struggle and we throw them the ball and make it easier for them."
 
Tech made 21 of their 55 field goal attempts for 38.2 percent and only 3-of-18 from 3, but the Red Raiders got a big triple from Davide Moretti with 2:09 remaining to give them a 55-54 lead after Esa Ahmad's two free throws put the Mountaineers ahead 54-52.
 
After Moretti's 3, West Virginia came up empty on three straight possessions, two of those resulting in turnovers and the other being a Chase Harler miss from the corner. 
 
Jarrett Culver, Tech's 19.6 points-per-game scorer who went scoreless in the first half after picking up two quick fouls, got a short jumper to go down with 40 seconds remaining to give the Red Raiders a 57-54 lead.
 
Two more points from Culver at the free throw line pushed Tech's lead to five, but Lamont West answered with a 3 at the other end with 21 seconds left. 
 
Culver and West then traded free throws, making it 61-59 with five seconds to go.
 
Here, Chris Beard used his final timeout underneath West Virginia's basket to get his team organized for the inbound play. 
 
Culver ran over West Virginia's James Bolden before the ball was put into play, no foul was called, and the scrambling Mountaineers were forced to foul Moretti with three seconds to go.
 
Asked afterward if he thought a charge should have been called, Huggins answered diplomatically.
 
"When you jump up in the air and run over a guy – and the guy is stationary – when you leave the ground and jump forward, it's generally a charge," he said. "But I haven't seen it on tape, and I didn't have near the look that the officials had."
 
Moretti made the first free throw and missed the second, but Brandon Knapper's mid-court shot attempt to tie the game as time expired was off line and bounced off the backboard.
 
"For the most part I thought we gave great effort," Huggins said. 
 
West Virginia (8-5, 0-1) had a nine-point first half lead before hitting a long field goal drought that spanned more than 10 minutes and extended into the second half.
 
During that stretch, Bolden's short jumper with 4:53 to go in the first half was the only Mountaineer field goal until Derek Culver finally ended the drought nearly six minutes into the second half.
 
That turned a 21-12 West Virginia lead into a 33-24 deficit.
 
WVU also didn't help itself at the free throw line by missing eight in the first half and 14 for the game. A couple of those misses came on the front end of one-and-ones, which could have resulted in additional scoring opportunities.
 
Otherwise, the Mountaineers had the 11^th-ranked Red Raiders right where they wanted them.
 
"I thought our game plan was good and we executed our game plan other than turning the ball over and making free throws," Huggins said. "But that's been the case all year."
 
Center Derek Culver gave West Virginia another strong performance coming off the bench with 12 points, eight rebounds and two assists. He's scored 23 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in his last two games against Lehigh and Texas Tech with starting center Sagaba Konate remains sidelined with a knee injury.
 
Culver got his 12 points despite attempting just four shots from the floor.
 
"He can't get touches because we can't pass it," Huggins said. "We were trying to throw the tight curl to Esa and they were switching and he had (6-5 guard) Brandon Francis on him. We don't pass the ball."
 
West led all scorers with 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3. 
 
The Mountaineers' five starters Ahmad, Jordan McCabe, Chase Harler, Wesley Harris and Logan Routt combined to score just 11 points on 3-of-17 shooting.
 
Harris did play well defensively by holding Jarrett Culver scoreless in the first half before he picked up three quick fouls early in the second half and eventually fouling out with 8:42 left in the game.
 
"Culver hurt us down the stretch but that's because Wes wasn't on him. I thought Wes bothered him," Huggins said.
 
Texas Tech (12-1, 1-0) saw three players disqualified with five fouls and Jarrett Culver finished the game with four. Culver scored 18, Matt Mooney had 14 and Moretti contributed 12 for the Red Raiders, which won for the first time in seven tries at the Coliseum.
 
"To my knowledge, Texas Tech hasn't won here since (West Virginia joined) the Big 12," Beard said. "We talk about those things because we're trying to make history in our program – trying to do things that have never been done before, so we embrace when we have an opportunity."
 
An upset victory over fifth-ranked Texas Tech in the NCAA's latest NET rankings would have given West Virginia its first quadrant one victory of the season.
 
"I think we won the game with our ball-handling," Beard said. "We only had three turnovers in the second half. We made them turn it over a little bit more than normal, and then we took care of the ball in the second half."
 
An announced crowd of 10,358 without the WVU students who are out on Christmas break attended tonight's game.
 
West Virginia now goes on the road to face Texas Saturday in Austin. That game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 and will tip off at 9 p.m.