Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins' young West Virginia team grew up a little bit tonight.
 
In a game TCU might be looking back on with dread come Selection Sunday, the undermanned Mountaineers outlasted the undermanned Horned Frogs 104-96 in triple overtime in front of 8,798 loyal WVU fans at the WVU Coliseum tonight.
 
TCU (18-10, 6-9) came into tonight's game dressing just eight players. 
 
West Virginia (11-17, 3-12) is now down its top four players from the beginning of the season with Sagaba Konate and Beetle Bolden still sidelined with injuries, and without three who played in the 31-point loss to the Horned Frogs back on Jan. 15.
 
Consequently, it became a battle of attrition that was seemingly tilted in TCU's favor with two seniors in its starting lineup and more veteran players out on the floor.
 
"I told (the team) yesterday that we aren't giving up, that's not in my DNA and there's a lot of them, I don't think it's in their DNA," Huggins said afterward. "We need to make a run here at the end of the year, and then, we need to go to the (Big 12) tournament and win."
 
West Virginia, with four freshmen playing tonight, was the team making the clutch plays at the end after missing four different opportunities to hit game-winning shots in regulation and the first two overtimes.
 
In the final overtime, junior forward Lamont West's 3 from the wing with 2:59 remaining began a 10-0 West Virginia run over the next two minutes to give the Mountaineers 100-91 lead.
 
Following an Alex Robinson miss, a hustling Jermaine Haley scored to put West Virginia up four. Another TCU miss preceded a second Mountaineer 3, this one coming from Chase Harler in the corner, to put them up seven.
 
Two Haley free throws pushed the margin to nine.
 
West Virginia had numerous chances to put TCU away, beginning in regulation when the Mountaineers led by six with 1:59 remaining. 
 
But freshman guard Jordan McCabe missed the front end of a one-and-one so instead of leading by as many as eight if McCabe makes both, the lead was sliced to three when J.D. Miller banged in a 3 at the other end.
 
On its next possession, TCU tied the game at 68 on Desmond Bane's 3.
 
WVU missed an opportunity to retake the lead with 24 seconds left when Kevin Samuel appeared to pin Haley's layup attempt on the glass, but no goal tending was called.
 
West Virginia also had a chance to win the game in regulation when Bane's turnover at midcourt ended up in the hands of McCabe, but his running 3-point try from the top of the key at the buzzer glanced off the front of the rim.
 
At the end of the first overtime, McCabe had two more cracks to win it at the buzzer. He rebounded his miss with three seconds left to take another 3 at the horn but once more it was off target.
 
At the end of the second overtime, Chase Harler's running jumper from the baseline with three second left glanced off the rim into the hands of Derek Culver, who was unable to get his stick-back attempt to go down just as time expired.
 
Otherwise, Culver was terrific tonight. He became the first Mountaineer player in 42 years to produce a 20-20 game in points and rebounds, the Youngstown, Ohio, resident scoring 22 points and grabbing a season-high 21 rebounds. The last WVU player to do so was Maurice Robinson against CCNY at the Coliseum on Dec. 7, 1977 when he scored 20 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in a 105-66 Mountaineer victory.
 
It was Culver's seventh double-double in 18 games so far this season.
 
"You're talking about a (6-foot-10, 260-pound player) who just separates people and takes a pounding. I mean he takes a beating every game, but he's strong enough that he can get through it," Huggins said. "It's almost one of those deals, well, if that was somebody it would have been a foul. 
 
"With him, because he's so strong and he plays through contact so well, he gets rounds when there are three or four people around him," Huggins added.
 
Culver was one of four West Virginia players to log more than 50 minutes tonight. Haley, who scored a season-high 18 points, played 52 minutes; Harler scored 13 points in 51 minutes and McCabe poured in a game-high 25 in 50 minutes of action.
 
McCabe, coming off a 14-point performance at Baylor, also handed out a season-high 11 assists for the Mountaineers tonight. The Kaukauna, Wisconsin, resident's play is finally beginning to stabilize WVU's point guard position.
 
"He's not looking over his shoulder and that makes all of the difference in the world," Huggins explained. "When you know you're going to play and you can play through some mistakes, you still may get your butt chewed out, but you're allowed to play through some things.
 
Miller led the Horned Frogs with 24 points on nine-of-14 shooting, 22 of those coming after intermission.
 
Bane, who burned West Virginia with 26 in the first meeting, scored 17 on seven-of-17 shooting. Kouat Noi also scored 17 before fouling out.
 
The two teams combined to turn the ball over 48 times while committing 43 fouls – 28 from the Horned Frogs. Samuel also fouled out while Miller, Robinson and Kendric Davis finished the game with four fouls each.
 
McCabe and Culver had four fouls each for WVU.
 
West contributed 17 points on six-of-14 shooting. 
 
West Virginia made 36-of-82 for 43.9 percent and 10-of-31 from 3 for 32.2 percent.
 
TCU connected on 38 of its 80 field goal attempts for 47.5 percent and nine-of-27 from behind the arc 33.3 percent. The Horned Frogs really harmed themselves at the free throw line, however, missing nine of 20 attempts.
 
West Virginia missed 11, but got 13 more free throw tries than TCU.
 
The Mountaineers had a 52-45 edge on the glass and a 23-to-14 advantage in assists.
 
Tonight was just the sixth triple-overtime game in WVU history, the last coming at Pitt on Feb. 12, 2010. The last triple-overtime game played at the WVU Coliseum was against Virginia Tech on Feb. 23, 1983, a 90-86 Mountaineer victory.
 
"Obviously, it was a game we felt we could have won a number of times but we didn't," TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. "They deserved to win. They outrebounded us. We talked about getting that done but we didn't so congratulations to them.
 
"We never got the lead and we always seemed to be come from behind," Dixon said. "They're competing and battling just like we are."
 
The win moves West Virginia to within a half-game of Oklahoma State in ninth place in the Big 12 standings. The 3-11 Cowboys play at 11^th-ranked Texas Tech tomorrow night before meeting 15^th-ranked Kansas in Stillwater Saturday afternoon.
 
WVU returns to the road to play at Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon. The Sooners fell 79-71 to West Virginia in Morgantown back on Feb. 2.
 
"We have another one here at home (against Iowa State on March 6), we got Oklahoma on the road and Oklahoma State on the road," Huggins said. "We can win. I'm not saying we will, but we can win. Those are games I think we can win and then we can go to Kansas City. It's happened before."