Sunday, December 13
Morgantown, W.Va.
1:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
6-1,0-0Big 12
87
vs
71
Richmond
4-1,0-0Atlantic 10
1
2
F
Richmond
30
41
71
West Virginia
52
35
87
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Late First-Half Flurry Propels West Virginia Sunday Afternoon
December 13, 2020 03:51 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – No. 11 West Virginia used a 29-10 run to end the first half to dispose of 19th-ranked Richmond 87-71 Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
Sophomore guard Miles McBride scored 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting, while junior forward Derek Culver produced his 20th career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in easily the Mountaineers' best showing of the season.
The final 10 minutes of the first half were certainly Final Four caliber for a WVU team that will undoubtedly crack the Top 10 in this week's Associated Press poll. What we saw to conclude the first half is what it can look like when this team puts everything together.
"We were terrific in the first half," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Our bigs, I thought, played like bigs."
Huggins took McBride out early in favor of Jordan McCabe, who hit a couple of big 3s, and when he put McBride back into the game the sophomore put on a clinic to finish up the half with 16 points.
Huggins said it was a matter of McBride tightening up his man-to-man defense.
"We got back-cut a couple of times out in South Dakota, a couple of times over at Georgetown and we said the first guy that gets back-cut is coming out so I had to take him out," Huggins explained. "He's a great kid. He's kind of what you want your kids to grow up to be, but we can't just keep getting back-cut like that so you've got to do something a little bit drastic and now is the time to do it."
After a couple of Souleymane Koureissi free throws pulled Richmond to within three with 8:24 remaining, the rest of the half turned into a Gold blur for the Spiders.
McBride got the run going with a layup and a couple of Taz Sherman baskets made the lead 10.
It swelled to 15 on a Culver basket and then to 18 on a McBride straight-away 3.
A Sherman steal led to an Oscar Tshiebwe breakaway dunk and then another McBride steal at midcourt led to two more points with 1:13 left.
Twenty seconds later, Sean McNeil's turnaround jumper got the margin to 24.
West Virginia's biggest lead was 30 early in the second half before Huggins began substituting liberally.
Richmond (4-1) outscored West Virginia 27-13 over the next 12 minutes, requiring Huggins to call timeout with 5:22 left to get his guys reorganized. He also put his starters back into the game and within the lead quickly returned to 20.
West Virginia (6-1) shot 58.1% from the floor (36 of 62) including a sizzling 57.1% (8 of 14) from 3-point distance.
After scoring 15 points on Friday night against North Texas on 5-of-9 shooting, McNeil continued his solid marksmanship today by connecting on 5-of-8 to finish with 12, matching Oscar Tshiebwe's 12.
McNeil has made four of his last five from 3 over the last two games.
"That's what we brought him in there to do," Huggins said.
Sherman contributed 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting coming off the bench. The junior guard connected on three of his four 3-point attempts in a season-high effort.
All 15 players dressed got into today's game, including walk-on guard Spencer Macke.
Freshman Taj Thweatt scored his first two points late in the game and promising young center Seny Ndiaye logged a couple of minutes and was credited with an assist.
Eight of West Virginia's 12 turnovers came in the second half.
Atlantic 10 preseason favorite Richmond got 14 points each from Tyler Burton and Nathan Cayo. The Spiders' big gun, Grant Golden, who came into today's game averaging 15.3 points, was held to just nine.
The Spiders shot 40.4% overall and just 23.1% on their 18 3-point tries.
"That's a good team and they're going to win a bunch of games. They're 19th in the country right now and I wouldn't think they would drop a whole lot," Huggins said.
West Virginia's rebounding margin was just one, 35-34, but that's primarily because the Mountaineers didn't have to retrieve as many misses as they have in their first five games of the season.
Culver has now pulled down at least 10 rebounds in 31 of his 63 career games at West Virginia.
"It's rough on him," Huggins said. "They push him. They grab him. They hold him and do everything and I constantly get, 'Well, he's a big, strong guy.' Well those big, strong guys, you call fouls for them, too. Otherwise we'd put all 140-pound guys in there and they get knocked down and all we do is shoot free throws," Huggins said.
Richmond shot 16 more free throws than West Virginia where it made up 12 points to the Mountaineers at the foul line.
WVU will now begin Big 12 play this Friday night against Iowa State at the WVU Coliseum in a 9 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Cyclones are 1-2 and will play Kansas State on Tuesday night before facing the Mountaineers.
Sophomore guard Miles McBride scored 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting, while junior forward Derek Culver produced his 20th career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in easily the Mountaineers' best showing of the season.
The final 10 minutes of the first half were certainly Final Four caliber for a WVU team that will undoubtedly crack the Top 10 in this week's Associated Press poll. What we saw to conclude the first half is what it can look like when this team puts everything together.
"We were terrific in the first half," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Our bigs, I thought, played like bigs."
Huggins took McBride out early in favor of Jordan McCabe, who hit a couple of big 3s, and when he put McBride back into the game the sophomore put on a clinic to finish up the half with 16 points.
Huggins said it was a matter of McBride tightening up his man-to-man defense.
"We got back-cut a couple of times out in South Dakota, a couple of times over at Georgetown and we said the first guy that gets back-cut is coming out so I had to take him out," Huggins explained. "He's a great kid. He's kind of what you want your kids to grow up to be, but we can't just keep getting back-cut like that so you've got to do something a little bit drastic and now is the time to do it."
After a couple of Souleymane Koureissi free throws pulled Richmond to within three with 8:24 remaining, the rest of the half turned into a Gold blur for the Spiders.
McBride got the run going with a layup and a couple of Taz Sherman baskets made the lead 10.
It swelled to 15 on a Culver basket and then to 18 on a McBride straight-away 3.
A Sherman steal led to an Oscar Tshiebwe breakaway dunk and then another McBride steal at midcourt led to two more points with 1:13 left.
Twenty seconds later, Sean McNeil's turnaround jumper got the margin to 24.
West Virginia's biggest lead was 30 early in the second half before Huggins began substituting liberally.
Richmond (4-1) outscored West Virginia 27-13 over the next 12 minutes, requiring Huggins to call timeout with 5:22 left to get his guys reorganized. He also put his starters back into the game and within the lead quickly returned to 20.
West Virginia (6-1) shot 58.1% from the floor (36 of 62) including a sizzling 57.1% (8 of 14) from 3-point distance.
After scoring 15 points on Friday night against North Texas on 5-of-9 shooting, McNeil continued his solid marksmanship today by connecting on 5-of-8 to finish with 12, matching Oscar Tshiebwe's 12.
McNeil has made four of his last five from 3 over the last two games.
"That's what we brought him in there to do," Huggins said.
Sherman contributed 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting coming off the bench. The junior guard connected on three of his four 3-point attempts in a season-high effort.
All 15 players dressed got into today's game, including walk-on guard Spencer Macke.Freshman Taj Thweatt scored his first two points late in the game and promising young center Seny Ndiaye logged a couple of minutes and was credited with an assist.
Eight of West Virginia's 12 turnovers came in the second half.
Atlantic 10 preseason favorite Richmond got 14 points each from Tyler Burton and Nathan Cayo. The Spiders' big gun, Grant Golden, who came into today's game averaging 15.3 points, was held to just nine.
The Spiders shot 40.4% overall and just 23.1% on their 18 3-point tries.
"That's a good team and they're going to win a bunch of games. They're 19th in the country right now and I wouldn't think they would drop a whole lot," Huggins said.
West Virginia's rebounding margin was just one, 35-34, but that's primarily because the Mountaineers didn't have to retrieve as many misses as they have in their first five games of the season.
Culver has now pulled down at least 10 rebounds in 31 of his 63 career games at West Virginia.
"It's rough on him," Huggins said. "They push him. They grab him. They hold him and do everything and I constantly get, 'Well, he's a big, strong guy.' Well those big, strong guys, you call fouls for them, too. Otherwise we'd put all 140-pound guys in there and they get knocked down and all we do is shoot free throws," Huggins said.
Richmond shot 16 more free throws than West Virginia where it made up 12 points to the Mountaineers at the foul line.
WVU will now begin Big 12 play this Friday night against Iowa State at the WVU Coliseum in a 9 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Cyclones are 1-2 and will play Kansas State on Tuesday night before facing the Mountaineers.
Team Stats
UR
WVU
FG%
.404
.581
3FG%
.231
.571
FT%
.655
.538
RB
34
35
TO
16
12
STL
10
10
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
9
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
12
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
12
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballTV Highlights: WVU 81, Lafayette 59
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