Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins dipped into his old bag of tricks to pull out a hard-earned 56-53 victory over 15^th-ranked Connecticut here before a raucous crowd of 12,045 at the WVU Coliseum tonight.
 
The veteran coach went to John Beilein's old 1-3-1 defense with two minutes remaining and his team leading 52-51, and what came of it was the Huskies missing seven of their final eight shots. UConn's only basket was Isaiah Whaley's tip-in with seven seconds left, which reduced the Mountaineers' lead to 55-53.
 
"That was old-school John Beilein 1-3-1, although it wasn't John Beilein because I can't do all of the stuff he did, but we lined up in the 1-3-1 and really tried to pressure the ball," Huggins said afterward.
 
Following a Connecticut timeout, WVU inbounded the ball to Sean McNeil, who got one of his two free throw attempts to drop. On the other end, Connecticut's R.J. Cole tried an unsuccessful 3 with two seconds to go that was rebounded by Dimon Carrigan as time expired.
 
Connecticut was 3 of 21 from behind the arc and shot just 30.3% (22 of 56) overall for the game.
 
"That was an old-time, slug-it-out deal," said Huggins. "If anyone ever questioned our competitiveness they ought to think twice. We do have some guys who are competitive."
 
What kept West Virginia from winning by more comfortable margin was its putrid performance from the free throw line. The Mountaineers connected on just 12 of 27, and they needed every single one of the seven they made in the second half.
 
Forward Pauly Paulicap's free throw with 3:06 left gave West Virginia a 52-51 lead, and McNeil finally got a pair to drop with 17 seconds remaining to put the Mountaineers ahead 55-51.
 
Other than that, it was mostly bricks.
 
"You don't win many games going 12-for-27 from the line," Huggins said.
 
Sherman, an 86% free throw shooter, was 4 of 7. McNeil made 4 of 6, while Gabe Osabuohien was 2 of 8, Jalen Bridges missed both of his free throw tries and Kedrian Johnson and Paulicap were 1 of 2 each.
 
But the Mountaineers made up for it on the defensive end of the floor where they held the Huskies to 32 points below their season average.
 
"Defensively, we haven't played that well all year," Huggins beamed. "That was down-in-the-dirt, grind-it-out, sit-your-butt-down and stay-in-front-of-your-guy defense."
 
Connecticut, playing without starters Adama Sanogo and Tyrese Martin, were trailing 34-29 early in the second half before going on a 10-0 run. Cole keyed the spurt with a pair of transition 3s, followed by layups by Tyler Polley and Jalen Gaffney.
 
West Virginia's six-minute scoreless drought finally ended when Bridges got a 3 to go down from the corner. Paulicap's put-back basket eventually tied the game at 47 with 6:47 to go.
 
"I think Pauly was a big key for us tonight," Huggins said.
 
Two Jordan Hawkins free throws with 4:01 remaining put Connecticut back ahead 51-48, but a Johnson free throw and a Sherman basket after Johnson's free throw miss tied the game at 51.
 
Another offensive rebound off a missed free throw by Osabuohien enabled McNeil to give West Virginia its four-point lead with 17 seconds left.
 
The one area that really concerned Huggins coming into tonight's game was rebounding. Connecticut was +10 on the glass while West Virginia was -2 for the year, but the Mountaineers were able to keep their deficit to only four, 35 to 31.
 
"That's pretty good for us," Huggins noted.
 
Sherman poured in a game-high 23 points on 8 of 17 shooting. He was also 3 of 6 from behind the arc. McNeil contributed 16 on 5 of 12 shooting.
 
"You've got to give Taz and Sean a lot of credit. They were being chased the whole game and I thought Taz really stepped up at the end," Huggins said. "But he can do that because everybody is so concerned about Sean and Sean is smart enough to get out of the way."

"It's not really a big rivalry game for us but in a way it was," Sherman added. "We're never going to play each other until maybe the (NCAA) tournament, so when you play a team like this once in a while you know you have to handle business. It's a good group of guys over there. They know how to play basketball."
 
Osabuohien's line was 6 points, seven rebounds, an assist and a steal. Paulicap also gave WVU positive minutes with 5 points, three rebounds, a block and a steal in a season-high 19 minutes of court time.
 
Whaley scored 15, Cole 14 and Andre Jackson 10 for the Huskies, who drop to 8-2. Tonight was Connecticut's first true road game of the season and the first time it has played in a hostile environment since late in the 2020 season before COVD-19 shut down the country.
 
Huggins earned his 100^th career victory over a ranked team, including his 55^th at WVU. Overall, he is now 908-383 and needs just 12 more wins to tie former Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun for third place on the NCAA all-time Division I wins list.
 
"The most soothing thing to me is we competed tonight," Huggins said.
 
The Mountaineers boosted their record to 2-1 in Big East/Big 12 Battle games having won their last two over Connecticut and Georgetown after falling on a last-second shot at St. John's in 2019.
 
Tonight's win was also important in terms of the NCAA NET rankings, which came out for the first time of the year earlier this week. The Mountaineers were ranked 73rd before tonight's triumph over the No. 10 Huskies.
 
"That's a talented bunch," Huggins said of UConn. "They are really athletic. Let's be honest, they didn't have their big fella (Sanogo) who is really, really good and that was an advantage for us because they weren't able to throw it close like they normally have."
 
West Virginia (8-1) concludes its five-game homestand on Sunday afternoon against Kent State. The Golden Flashes have a 4-3 record before facing Detroit Mercy Thursday night in Kent, Ohio.
 
Tickets remain on sale for that game and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.