MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia returns to action Saturday night at Texas following its near miss of upsetting 11^th-ranked Texas Tech earlier this week at the WVU Coliseum.
 
The Mountaineers had an early nine-point lead, fell behind by nine and battled back to take a 54-52 lead with 2:21 remaining.
 
But West Virginia (8-5, 0-1) hit another wall with three straight empty possessions, two ending in turnovers, as the Red Raiders pulled out a 62-59 victory – their first ever in Morgantown.
 
The Mountaineers committed 22 turnovers – which has been a year-long issue – and they also missed 14 of their 32 free throw attempts. Despite all of the turnovers, four fewer misses at the line would have given West Virginia a valuable quadrant one victory over the fifth-best team in this week's NCAA NET rankings.
 
"We've got to score, but we've got to make free throws," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "We have to get to the line and we have to make free throws. That's why they call them free. Nobody's guarding you. You're supposed to make those."
 
Huggins would also like to see his starting five make some more of their field goal attempts, too.
 
The five he put out on the floor to begin the Texas Tech game – Jordan McCabe, Chase Harler, Logan Routt, Wesley Harris and Esa Ahmad - shot a combined 3-of-17 from the floor and scored just 11 points.
 
It's astonishing that the Mountaineers were even able to stay in the game with such little production from their starting five.
 
Mitigating that were Lamont West's 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and freshman forward Derek Culver, who contributed 12 points and had a game-high eight rebounds coming off the bench.
 
Culver was a game-best plus-14 during his 28 minutes of action, and it seemed like whenever he was on the floor good things happened for the Mountaineers. In games against Jacksonville State, Lehigh and Texas Tech following his reinstatement to team activities, Culver is averaging nine points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 64.3 percent from the floor.
 
"The biggest thing is people are going to start doubling him," Huggins said. "They haven't yet, but I think they will. They doubled Sags (Konate) early in the year, and I think they'll start doubling Derek."
 
Culver has been a welcome addition with junior forward Sagaba Konate still absent due to his right knee injury. Konate missed his fifth game against Texas Tech and a timetable for his return hasn't changed since Huggins announced before the Jacksonville State game that he could be sidelined for two to four weeks.

Ahmad leads the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game followed by West (11.6) and junior guard Beetle Bolden (11.3).
 
Bolden, who continues to battle a variety of physical ailments, scored a team-high 22 points in a recent win over Lehigh but was held to just seven points with four turnovers in the Texas Tech loss.
 
Bolden is one of the few regulars with more assists than turnovers, although barely at 34 to 29. Ahmad has eight more turnovers than assists, Harris four more, West three more and backup guard Jermaine Haley two more.
 
Reserve forward Andrew Gordon, who has seen his minutes reduced drastically with the emergence of Culver, shows 14 turnovers and just one assist in 13 games so far this year.
 
Huggins believes the 9-4 Longhorn team the Mountaineers are facing on Saturday night ranks right with Kansas as the most talented team in the Big 12. 
 
"I think they're among the most talented teams in the country," he noted. "When you look at their roster you kind of get enamored with their bigs and (Kerwin) Roach is the state record holder in the long jump. You are talking about elite athletes."
 
As always, Texas has exceptional size with 6-foot-11, 220-pound freshman forward Jaxson Hayes and 6-foot-9, 250-pound Dylan Osetkowski working the glass. Those two combine to average 19.6 points and 13.5 rebounds per game.
 
Roach is Texas' leading scorer, averaging 13.6 points while handing out a team-best four assists per game, while sophomore guard Matt Coleman is giving the Longhorns 10 points and 3.3 assists per game.
 
Texas gets its pop off the bench from 6-5 sophomore guard Jase Febres (8.3 ppg.) and 6-3 freshman guard Courtney Ramey (6.2 ppg.).
 
The Jeckyll and Hyde Longhorns have either been really good, as they were in beating Arkansas, North Carolina, Purdue and their most recent 20-point victory at Kansas State, or they have been not-so good in recent losses to Radford, VCU and Providence at home.
 
West Virginia is hoping it sees Hyde and not Jeckyll on Saturday night in Austin.
 
A 9 p.m. (EST) tip has been assigned for Saturday's game to accommodate ESPN2 national television coverage (Lowell Galindo and Robbie Hummel).
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's statewide radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs begins at 8 p.m. Fans outside the Mountain State can also access the broadcast online through WVUsports.com and the popular app WVU Gameday app available for download through iTunes and Google Play.
 
Texas holds a slim 9-8 lead in the series and claimed last year's meeting in Austin 87-79 in overtime. Otherwise, West Virginia has won four of the last five meetings in the series including a 74-72 victory at the Erwin Center on Jan. 14, 2017.