Box Score West Virginia overcame a nine-point second half deficit to defeat UAB 65-59 at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham Convention Center in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday evening.
 
The Mountaineers used a 23-8 run over the remaining 8:02 after Tony Toney's layup gave the Blazers a 51-42 lead.
 
A Gabe Osabuohien basket and three Kedrian Johnson free throws reduced UAB's lead to three, 52-49, and back-to-back Sean McNeil buckets made it a one-point game with 3:35 left.
 
Two missed Justin Brown free throws put West Virginia in position to take its first lead of the second half. McNeil was fouled by Michael Ertel with 2:38 left, he made both, and Johnson rebounded Quan Jackson's missed jumper with 2:17 to go.
 
Following a West Virginia timeout, Taz Sherman hit a 3 from well beyond the 3-point arc to give WVU a 58-54 lead. Two Johnson free throws with 31 seconds left got the margin to six, and he hit two more with 14 seconds remaining.
 
The Mountaineers (10-1) missed nine of their first 17 free throws before connecting on nine of their remaining 10 to go 17 of 27 overall from the line.
 
"We've won a bunch that we probably shouldn't have won, just by grit and gutting it out," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said afterward. "We made plays."
 
Sherman, facing constant double teaming throughout the game, overcame a slow start to finish with a game-high 17 points on 5 of 14 shooting. He did hit both of West Virginia's 3-point field goals. 
 
"He's got a green light for the rest of the year," Huggins joked. "I was kind of on him a little bit at halftime because I thought he was passing the buck so to speak, but we've been playing him too long. We went in today hoping we could get him out and get some of those other guys in."
 
McNeil contributed 12, including a difficult running bank shot going away from the basket with 3:25 to go to reduce UAB's lead to one.
 
"That was huge," Huggins said.
 
Johnson was 7 of 8 from the charity stripe and finished with 9. Johnson was just a 47% free throw shooter coming into today's game.
 
"Kedrian has been in the gym," Huggins said. "There is a direct correlation with those who have been in the gym and those who have not and he wants to be a good player and he wants to win.
 
"(Johnson's) greatest asset is (his defense)," Huggins added. "He's as good an on-the-ball defender as we've seen all year. Their little guy (Jordan Walker) is good now and Kedy was there with him step for step. He's sliding his feet and the little fella is running, so he was huge for us."
 
Walker led the Blazers with 13 points.
 
UAB (9-3) shot 40% for the game, 24 of 60, and was just 4 of 21 from 3 for 19%. West Virginia, too, struggled from behind the arc connecting on only 2 of 13 for 15.4%.
 
West Virginia out-rebounded UAB 39 to 36 and forced 15 Blazer turnovers. UAB also hurt itself at the free throw line by going just 7 of 13 for the game.
 
The Blazer's biggest lead was 10, 14-4, early in the first half.
 
Tonight's win was significant for West Virginia because it was the Mountaineers' first road victory of the season, and it also came against a team ranked 33 in the latest NCAA Net rankings. Huggins was pleased with that, and the four-man rotation he's beginning to develop in the paint.
 
"Our interior rotation is starting to fill out," Huggins said. "We're playing four guys really (Osabuohien, Isaiah Cottrell, Pauly Paulicap and Dimon Carrigan) sometimes in two spots and the majority of the time in one spot. They're extremely supportive of each other."
 
Former Huggins assistant Andy Kennedy is now 0-3 against his mentor. WVU also evened the all-time series against UAB at 2-2.
 
Huggins will play another game against one of his former assistant coaches when he meets Jerrod Calhoun's Youngstown State Penguins next Wednesday night at the Coliseum.
 
The contest will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.