Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Give this one to the old ball coach with 905 career victories. Bob Huggins, the fourth winningest Division I coach in NCAA history, used everything in his bag of tricks to pull out an 80-77 victory over upset-minded Eastern Kentucky here at the WVU Coliseum Friday night.
 
West Virginia, trailing for more than 33 minutes of tonight's game, came up with the winning plays down the stretch to escape with a closer-than-expected three-point victory.
 
Huggins warned everyone beforehand that Eastern Kentucky (5-2) was capable of pulling off an upset, and A.W. Hamilton's scrappy ballclub nearly did it.
 
"They're talented, and A.W. does a great job of coaching them, and they really were the aggressor," Huggins said. "We weren't the aggressor until the end."
 
EKU got 3s from Curt Lewis, Jannson Williams and Michael Moreno to begin the game, and led by as many as 12 (30-18) with 10:16 left in the first half.
 
Six different Colonels made 3s as they shot 14 of 29 from 3, led by Williams' 5 of 8, and EKU also held its own on the glass against the Mountaineers. WVU had a slim 34 to 33 edge there.
 
"You give up so much penetration, let them penetrate and pitch and guys get step-in shots, it's like playing in the backyard," Huggins said. "Conceptually what they run is really good, you can't give them open shots and defensively they mix it up enough to kind of keep you off guard so to speak."
 
Despite this, West Virginia was able to turn up the defensive pressure in the second half, while Huggins used all three of his timeouts over the remaining 2:36 once the Mountaineers were finally able to wrestle away the lead.
 
The game tipped in WVU's balance with 3:26 to go on Taz Sherman's baseline basket. He was fouled on the play by Williams and missed the free throw, but a hustling Gabe Osabuohien came up with a big offensive rebound. The ball eventually got into Malik Curry's hands at the top of the key and he got to the rim for a layup to give the Mountaineers a 75-71 lead.
 
Another Curry basket with 1:55 left got the lead to five, and a third layup kept the lead at five with 36 seconds to go. Huggins used his final timeout to set his defense and remind his bigs to rebound missed shots, which Osabuohien did when Braxton Beverly missed with 14 seconds left.
 
Osabuohien quickly got the ball to Sherman, who dribbled the clock down to 10 seconds left before being fouled by Robb Cooper. Sherman made one of two and Russhard Cruickshank hit the game's final basket, a 3 just ahead of the buzzer.
 
"We tried to get it spread a little bit to get it at the rim," Huggins explained. "They did a great job of packing things early on to where we couldn't get a whole lot of penetration, and they did a great job of guarding the guys that can score."
 
Sherman scored a career-high 28 on 8 of 15 shooting, including 4 of 7 from 3. The rest of the team was just 1 of 16 from behind the arc.
 
"He makes hard shots," Huggins said of Sherman. "He didn't get 28 easy points tonight. He had 28 points that he had to earn."
 
Curry finished with 16 coming off the bench, while Osabuohien had another solid all-around night with 8 points, seven rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal.
 
"He makes plays," Huggins said of his senior forward. "I thought we were really, really flat and we didn't come out and play with a lot of energy."
 
Eastern Kentucky shot 49.1% from the floor to West Virginia's 46.7%, but the Mountaineers were 14 of 24 from the floor in the second half for 58.3%. WVU also won last Sunday's game against Clemson in Charleston, South Carolina, by tightening up its defense over the final 10 minutes of the second half.
 
WVU outscored EKU 38 to 22 in the paint and 35 to 25 from its bench while turning the Colonels over 17 times.
 
Williams tallied 22, while Moreno and Beverly added 12 each for Eastern Kentucky.
 
West Virginia remains in Morgantown to face Bellarmine on Tuesday night. The game will be streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.