Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia was without its leading scorer Taz Sherman and it showed in today's 60-53 loss to 14^th-ranked Texas Tech.
 
The Mountaineers made just 11 field goals and shot 24.2% from the floor – their worst shooting performance since connecting on 23.1% of their shots in a 31-point loss at Texas Tech two years ago.
 
West Virginia (13-9, 2-7) converted four field goals in the second half – the first a 3 coming from Sean McNeil with 13:43 remaining. Malik Curry layup came four minutes later. Gabe Osabuohien got his layup to go down with 7:46 left and Kedrian Johnson hit the last field goal from in front of the foul line with 1:06 left.
 
"We were 4 of 32 in the second half," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "You can't win if you can't score. We had opportunities and we just didn't make them. We've got one-footers we didn't make and we didn't finish plays."

"Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in. I think we shot like 12% in the second half and that's not going to win you a lot of ballgames," McNeil said. "We let that one slip away."
 
Despite its poor shooting, West Virginia was still in the game with three minutes to go trailing by three after a pair of Osabuohien free throws. 
 
The Mountaineers had three different chances to make it a one-point game, but Osabuohien missed close to the basket twice and Curry couldn't get his contested layup try to drop. A Bryson Williams steal led to his two free throws with 1:46 remaining, and Daniel Batcho's breakaway dunk 20 seconds later put the Red Raiders up by seven.
 
Osabuohien made one of two from the line and Johnson's jumper got the deficit down to four, but Texas Tech answered with two Batcho free throws with 51 seconds left. That made it a six-point game.
 
West Virginia led 32-26 at halftime behind Jalen Bridges' team-high 16 points, with four of his field goals coming from behind the arc. However, Bridges was only able to get off three shot attempts in the second half and failed to score.
 
McNeil, who contributed 15, also had a difficult time getting loose against Texas Tech's perimeter defense. He was 4 of 16 shooting, including 2 of 9 from behind the arc.
 
"They guarded (Bridges) and Sean, they were Triangle and 2 sometimes, and the shots that they got were rushed and hurried," Huggins said. "We tried to run the old Elevator play for him and Sean couldn't even get that one off."

"They were helping off of me and Sean a little bit less and not allowing us those open looks we got in the first half," Bridges said.
 
Huggins tried four different posts, including seldom-used true freshman James Okonkwo for a four-minute stint in the second half, in an attempt to find a spark. The four posts were a combined 2 of 10 from the floor, with Pauly Paulicap scoring both baskets and contributing nine rebounds, four less than Osabuohien's game-high 13 boards.
 
The Mountaineers were 9 of 38 from 2-point distance and were outscored 34-10 in the paint for the game. In its last two losses, West Virginia has been outscored 76-30 from that area of the floor. 
 
Texas Tech (18-5, 7-3) did nearly all its damage near the basket today with 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward Bryson Williams leading the way with 15 points.
 
Davion Warren scored 11 and Kevin McCullar added 10. The Red Raiders were 4 of 21 from 3 and finished the game shooting just 37.3%.
 
"Quite frankly, they kind of big-boyed us in the second half," Huggins said. "They just bounced it into us, bounced it into us until they got close enough to get it on the rim."
 
Sherman, the Big 12's second-leading scorer averaging 18.9 points per game, remains in concussion protocol after getting struck in the face by Jeremy Sochan with 3:47 left in last Tuesday's Baylor loss and sat on the bench in street clothes for today's game.
 
Huggins said afterward that he's not sure when Sherman will be cleared to return.
 
"That's out of my realm," Huggins said. "I'm sure they'll check on him next week, but even with that I don't know if he will be able to go."
 
Today's defeat was West Virginia's seventh in a row – the most since dropping seven straight to conclude the 2013 season – and it was just Texas Tech's second-ever victory in the Coliseum.
 
The Red Raiders, which defeated West Virginia 78-65 in Lubbock on Jan. 22, has swept the season series for just the second time since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 10 years ago. The other time happened during the 2019 season when the Red Raiders reached the national championship game.
 
"We've got to win some games," Huggins said. "We haven't lost to bad teams – which is a good thing – but if we can get on a roll here starting Tuesday we're still going to be alright. As they say, we're not dead yet."
 
The Mountaineers remain in Morgantown face 20^th-ranked Iowa State on Tuesday night. The Cyclones lost by 22 at Texas earlier today.