Box Score West Virginia used career-high scoring nights from Joe Toussaint and Seth Wilson off the bench to defeat Texas Tech 76-61 and snap its 12-game game Big 12 road losing streak Wednesday night at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas.
 
Toussaint led everyone with 22 while Wilson contributed 15 – all from behind the 3-point arc – as the Mountaineers boost their record to 12-8, 2-6.
 
The Red Raiders are still winless in conference play at 0-8 while their overall record is evened at 10-10.
 
The 3-ball and the free throw line were West Virginia's two big weapons tonight. The Mountaineers made 10 from behind the arc and scored 28 at the foul line in a foul-filled, poor shooting affair.
 
West Virginia shot 37.3% overall, 19 of 51, including 25 misses from 3-point range. Texas Tech shot 38.9% and missed 14 of their 20 triples. The two teams were called for 48 fouls and committed 34 turnovers, 19 of those coming from the winning team.
 
Texas Tech was assessed three technical fouls resulting in five free throws for West Virginia. Erik Stevenson shot all of them, making four, and he ended the night 9 of 11 from the line for 16 points.
 
West Virginia dominated the glass 44 to 27, and it was Jimmy Bell Jr.'s six offensive rebounds that got the Mountaineers a 33-28 halftime lead.
 
Texas Tech began the game with a 10-2 lead and Huggins immediately went to his bench with five new players, Kobe Johnson, Toussaint, Wilson, Mohamed Wague and freshman Josiah Harris.
 
"We didn't start out very well, but we got great help from our bench," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Our starters just didn't have any pop to them. They're the guys who have played the majority of the minutes and they were dragging a little bit, so I thought we'd go with some young guys and guys who have a little bit more pop to them."
 
Tech's lead swelled to double digits before West Virginia began chipping away. Toussaint's step-back 3 pulled the Mountaineers to within four, 16-12, Wilson and Toussaint 3s narrowed the deficit to three and then momentum changed when Kerwin Walton was assessed a technical foul for slamming the ball to the ground after being called for a personal foul.
 
Stevenson got four free throws out of that and West Virginia had its first lead of the game, 22-21. A Kedrian Johnson 3 made it 25-23, and Tre Mitchell's 3 with 31 seconds left gave WVU a 33-28 advantage.
 
West Virginia had an opportunity to add more ahead of the first half horn, but Stevenson's long look from beyond the top of the key hit the back of the rim.
 
For the first 10 minutes of the second half, West Virginia's only two field goals were Wilson 3s, one a bank shot from straight away with 14:07 remaining. Fortunately, the Red Raiders were unable to make up much ground because of their shooting difficulties.
 
The play of the game happened with 6:25 remaining and the Mountaineers leading by nine, 59-50. Tech's Daniel Batcho appeared to have an easy dunk, which would have reduced WVU's lead to seven, but James Okonkwo blocked his attempted with two hands and grabbed the ball out of the air.
 
"James is really talented," Huggins said. "He's a guy who out-grew tennis and he's got all kinds of potential, it's just a matter of us continuing to work with him and him continuing to let us work with him. I think he's a great basketball future ahead of him."
 
Toussaint was fouled at the other end and made two free throws to give West Virginia its first double-digit lead of the game.
 
Okonkwo scored just 5 points but pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds and was credited with two blocks and a steal. Stevenson added 10 boards while Bell and Toussaint grabbed six each.
 
West Virginia's bench outscored Texas Tech's 50 to 15, and the Mountaineers actually made one more 3-point field goals than 2-point field goals.
 
"(Texas Tech) was playing really physical and we couldn't get it close, and when we did they double-teaming and a times triple-teaming us, so we wanted to spread them out and make cuts," Huggins explained. "If they were going to try and cover the rim we were going to have to make some jump shots, and fortunately we did."
 
Texas Tech's talented freshman guard Pop Isaacs saw his night end with 15:24 left when he turned his ankle after missing a 3-point shot. West Virginia's Kedrian Johnson and Emmitt Matthews Jr. were also banged up in tonight's game and watched the ending from the bench.
 
Kevin Obanor led Texas Tech with 20 points while De'vion Harmon added 14.
 
"That was a great team win," Huggins said. "We've given away so many games this year, and we tried today. You can't turn it over that many times, so many times, and really just dumb turnovers. They didn't force us into those turnovers – we did it ourselves."
 
West Virginia has more difficult games on the horizon against nationally ranked teams. The Mountaineers will face 15^th-ranked Auburn on Saturday at noon at the WVU Coliseum in the final SEC-Big 12 Challenge game in the 10-year history of the event.
 
Then, WVU returns to conference play next Wednesday night to face 11^th-ranked TCU coming off impressive blowout victories at Kansas and against Oklahoma. The Horned Frogs will face Mississippi State on the road in its Big 12-SEC Challenge game.