Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia got 25 points from senior Taz Sherman on Senior Day to knock off TCU 70-64 in Saturday afternoon Big 12 basketball at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Today's victory snapped a seven-game losing streak for the Mountaineers and continued TCU's woeful play in Morgantown. The Horned Frogs have now lost 10 straight here since the two schools joined the Big 12 in 2012.
 
"We had really good practices leading into today's game," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They were absolutely great. We did some full-court stuff which I think really helped us and it's all those guys. 
 
"We got together and said 'this thing can go one of two ways' and they said 'we're not going to lose any more' and so far they haven't," Huggins added.
 
West Virginia, which led by as many as 11 points in the first half, saw its lead evaporate with 11 minutes remaining when Mike Miles' jumper tied the game at 51. The Horned Frogs, which added a couple of breakaway baskets from Damion Baugh, led 59-53 with 6:27 left on another Miles jumper.
 
But West Virginia (15-16, 4-14) responded with baskets by Sherman, Gabe Osabuohien and Malik Curry to tie the game at 59. The score was stuck on 60-60 for almost three minutes until Sherman unknotted things with a pair of free throws.
 
"Before, we would have put our heads down and during the one timeout that's all I said, 'We're not going to put our head down any more - we're going to fight this thing through' and obviously they did," Huggins said.
 
Then, a poor Baugh pass landed into the arms of Kedrian Johnson, who delivered the ball to Sherman for a driving layup to give West Virginia a four-point lead. Misses by Miles and Chuck O'Bannon led to an Osabuohien rebound, and after Johnson retrieved Sherman's miss, Jalen Bridges was fouled by Miles with 21 seconds left.
 
He made both free throws to give West Virginia a two-possession lead. Miles' 3 with seven seconds left was TCU's lone field goal during the game's final 6:27.
 
"I thought our man-to-man defense was so much better," Huggins said. "We stayed in front of people better than we have in a long time. We watched the film and they saw how we have given some games away and they responded."
 
The Mountaineers were plus-seven on the glass at halftime and finished the game out-boarding the Horned Frogs 33 to 29. Late last month in Fort Worth, TCU had an 18-rebound advantage in its 77-67 victory over West Virginia back on Feb. 21.
 
"If you get out-rebounded by 18 that means they've got 18 more chances to score than we do so today we had for more chances to score than they did and we needed all of them," Huggins said.
 
West Virginia got 10 points each from seniors Sean McNeil and Malik Curry, as well as 10 points and five rebounds from sophomore forward Jalen Bridges. 
 
"(Bridges) is a great team player and he's terrific because he can play so many positions," Huggins pointed out.
 
Osabuohien led everyone with 10 rebounds.
 
The Mountaineers were 18 of 21 from the free throw line to compensate for their 4-of-20 shooting from 3-point distance. Overall, West Virginia was 24 of 61 from the floor while TCU connected on 22 of its 52 field goal tries.
 
Sherman's 25 points today moves him past Drew Schifino and Joe Herber into 45^th place on West Virginia's all-time scoring list with 1,070 career points. He needs just two more to jump forward Dave Reaser into 44^th place.
 
Miles led the Horned Frogs with 17 points while Baugh and Micah Peavy scored 12 each. Despite today's loss, TCU is still in pretty good shape as far as its NCAA Tournament hopes are concerned. The Frogs (19-11, 8-10) were listed as an eight-seed in Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology this morning with an NCAA NET ranking of 44.
 
West Virginia's NET ranking was 80 before today's victory.
 
Seven seniors were recognized on the court before today's game: Sherman, McNeil, Osabuohien, Curry, Pauly Paulicap, Dimon Carrigan and Kedrian Johnson.
 
An announced crowd of 11,324 watched today's game, giving West Virginia an average of 11,523 for its 18 home dates this year. That's the third-highest average ever at the WVU Coliseum, despite West Virginia's 15-16 overall regular season record.
 
WVU averaged 12,377 fans per game during its Final Four season in 2010 and averaged 12,299 for its 16 home dates two years ago.
 
"For everything we've been through and everything we've put our fans through, what a terrific response," Huggins said. "I hope (the fans) understand when they get excited in this building it makes a difference."
 
West Virginia will face either Kansas State or Oklahoma in the opening game of the Big 12 Tournament next Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City.