Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Courtney Ramey's 19 points helped Texas to a 75-53 victory over West Virginia here at the WVU Coliseum tonight.
An announced crowd of 12,815 was looking for a bounce-back performance from the Mountaineers after they lost by 31 on Monday night at Texas Tech.
But West Virginia was unable to deliver.
WVU had no answer for Texas' zone defense, especially in the second half when the Mountaineers made just nine-of-23 field goals to finish the game shooting 35.3 percent.
In its last two games, West Virginia has misfired on 63 of its 90 field goal attempts.
"I'm totally embarrassed that this is happening," West Virginia coach
Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show. "I don't know what to say."
Texas (14-10, 6-5) never trailed but did see its early eight-point lead whittled to one, 29-28, with 2:13 remaining in the first half. A
Jermaine Haley 3 from the top of the key, a
Chase Harler layup off a feed from
Derek Culver and five straight points from
Esa Ahmad forced Longhorn coach Shaka Smart to call timeout.
When play resumed, Ramey knocked down a triple, one of five he made for the night, and Matt Coleman III finished the first half scoring when he converted a driving layup off of a
Lamont West miss.
A 10-1 Texas run to begin the second half got the Longhorn lead to 15, 44-29, and soon it grew to 23, then to 27 and eventually to 29 points before Smart emptied his bench.
Roach II added 14 points on six-of-10 shooting.
Texas made 29-of-64 for 45.3 percent (including eight second half dunks) and was nine-of-23 from 3-point distance for 39.1 percent.
The Longhorns had a 42-34 rebounding advantage and a 40-22 edge in paint scoring.
"We don't pass the ball and I'm blown away with how bad we pass the ball and our unwillingness to pass the ball," Huggins said.
West Virginia (10-14, 2-9) got a team-best 14 points from forward
Esa Ahmad. The senior now has 1,039 career points, moving him past Tony Robertson (1,026) and Lee Patrone (1,026) into 48
thplace in career scoring at WVU.
Culver added seven points and grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds. It was the sixth time the freshman has grabbed 10 or more boards in a game this season.
"Part of our problem is Derek doesn't know what he's doing. Derek deserves some of the blame for that but the reality is he wasn't here the first semester so it's not a reaction to him like it is to everybody else, so he hurts us in that regard," Huggins said, "But he helps us in so many other ways."
It was West Virginia's fourth straight game without injured guard Beetle Bolden and the 15
th without injured forward
Sagaba Konate.
The 22-point loss tonight was West Virginia's largest at home this season. It's also the fifth double-digit loss in Big 12 play this season, equaling the number of double-figure losses for the Mountaineers in their prior three seasons combined when they reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 twice.
"We're all accountable and I'm accountable and it's my fault," Huggins said. "I recruited them, or at least I approved of their recruitment, so it's my fault and I'll fix it."
Prior to tonight's game, Morgantown native Peter Wilson gave a stirring performance of the national anthem. White is a member of the White House Marine Band. He dedicated his performance to the memory of Merry Ann Nehlen, the late wife of WVU coach Don Nehlen, who passed away on Jan. 28.
West Virginia has the week off before traveling to Lawrence to play Kansas on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. A 4 p.m. tip time has been established for the game, to be televised either on ESPN or ESPN2.
