Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia's powerful inside duo of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe were simply too much for VCU this afternoon in the second semifinal game of the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic in the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
Culver scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and Tshiebwe added 11 points and 16 boards to lead the 15^th-ranked Mountaineers to a 78-66 victory over the Rams.
 
West Virginia will now face Western Kentucky, a 75-69 winner over Memphis earlier today, in tomorrow night's championship game at 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
 
Against VCU, Culver was 8-of-14 from the floor and 7-for-9 from the free throw line for his 23 points - two shy of his career-high 25 scored against Rhode Island during his freshman season.
 
"We've been trying to get Derek to slow down and when he slows down like he did today, you can see how effective he can be," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
 
The story of today's game was West Virginia's work on the offensive glass. The Mountaineers grabbed 23 offensive rebounds and turned that into 25 second-chance points. 
 
WVU had an overall 52-35 advantage on the glass.
 
That offset the 21 Mountaineer turnovers the Rams managed to force off of their full-court pressure defense. VCU got 13 steals out of it resulting in 22 fast-break points.
 
West Virginia (2-0) shot a little better from the field than it did in its opening-night victory over South Dakota State, connecting on 41.3% of its field goal attempts, and a lot of that can be attributed to fewer 3-point attempts.
 
After jacking 32 3s in its season opener against SDSU, West Virginia attempted half that many, making six for 37.5%.
 
"I thought we did a better job offensively, although we turned it over 21 times compared to three last night," Huggins said. "We can't turn it over 21 times and continue to win. We've got to take better care of the ball.
 
"That's the statistic that stands out," he added. "I thought we did a good job on the glass; Derek kept balls alive and scored close to kind of give us the lead before our perimeter guys kind of warmed up. When they started making shots we were able to stretch the lead and get a little bit more comfortable."
 
Back-to-back transition 3s by Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil in the second half broke open a six-point WVU lead.
 
McNeil contributed his second straight 16-point effort while Sherman came off the bench to score 9.
 
Deuce McBride added 12 but was tagged with four turnovers. Sherman and backup point guard Jordan McCabe also turned the ball over four times against TCU's full-court pressure.
 
The Rams, which advanced to today's semifinals with a come-from-behind win over Utah State last night, got 13 points from guard Bones Hyland and 11 off the bench from Vince Williams.
 
VCU (1-1) shot just 35.9% from the floor and only 14.3% from 3-point range, the Rams connecting on only 3 of their 21 triples.
 
In today's first game, the Hilltoppers got 21 points from 6-11 center Charles Bassey and 18 points from guard Taveion Hollingsworth in their six-point win over the Tigers.
 
West Virginia and Western Kentucky last met in the Myrtle Beach Invitational in 2018 with WKU pulling out a 63-57 victory. Bassey, then a freshman, had 13 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Hilltoppers.
 
"I think they've got two really good bigs. Their other big (Carson Williams) kind of put the game away today being able to post and score around the rim," Huggins said. "We are what we are. This is Derek's third year and Oscar's second year and they know what they've got to do."