Box Score Backup center JaKobe Coles scored a team-high 17 points to lead TCU to a 76-72 victory over West Virginia Tuesday night at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
 
The 15^th-ranked Horned Frogs, playing without Big 12 preseason player of the year Mike Miles Jr. and starting center Eddie Lampkin, who was limited to only eight minutes because of an ankle injury, took control of tonight's game by outscoring the Mountaineers 48 to 30 in the paint.
 
"Totally absurd for the guys that we have," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
 
Damion Baugh and Shahada Wells contributed 16 points each as the lane for tonight's shot chart was colored in purple. 
 
TCU assisted on 20 of its 30 field goals, many of those layups in the half court, and the Frogs finished the night 30-of-58 overall for 51.7%.
 
West Virginia used four different centers to try and slow down TCU's inside scorers to no avail. 
 
Huggins thought his team lacked enthusiasm and emotion at the start of the game.
 
"I was extremely upset with us in the first 10 minutes of the game, just our lack of energy and our lack of competitiveness," he said. "I tried to talk to them about it at halftime, and it was better, but you put yourself in a hole and then every little thing probably becomes way more important than what it really is."
 
The Mountaineers (13-9, 2-7) trailed by nine with 4:10 left in the first half but got it down to two with 25 seconds left on two Kedrian Johnson free throws.
 
TCU held the ball of the final shot and Lampkin found Coles cutting to the basket for a layup ahead of the horn.
 
TCU (17-5, 6-3) built its lead to 11 early in the second half and got it to 12 with 4:32 to go on a pair of Baugh free throws. Five straight points from Erik Stevenson got the deficit down to six, and WVU had a chance to reduce it more when Stevenson drove into Baugh looking to score near the basket.
 
No foul was called, and TCU ended up getting a free throw at the other end when Joe Toussaint fouled Xavier Cork. From here, it turned into a free throw shooting contest with the Horned Frogs connecting on five of six.
 
"When we did fight our way back into it, we had guys standing around watching the ball and then they back cut us to death," Huggins said. "We worked on that, we talked about that, we showed that on film and we just didn't adjust to it and just didn't do it."
 
Stevenson led West Virginia with 17, Mitchell added 15 and Toussaint came off the bench to score 12. Emmitt Matthews Jr. contributed 10 points.
 
The Mountaineers shot 43.9% overall, including just 6-of-22 from 3-point distance for 27.3%.
 
Miles hyperextended his knee early in Saturday's loss at Mississippi State and was watching tonight's game in street clothes.
 
With tonight's loss, West Virginia splits the season series with TCU after defeating the Frogs 74-65 in Morgantown back on Jan. 18.
 
"Give them credit, they made shots, they made free throws and they beat us down the floor a few times because we jogged down the floor," Huggins said. "That was a huge, huge thing we talked about, worked on and ran drills for it."
 
WVU begins a two-game homestand on Saturday with an 8 p.m. matchup against Oklahoma that will be televised nationally on ESPN2. West Virginia remains in Morgantown to face Iowa State on Wednesday, Feb. 8 in a 7 p.m. game that will also air on ESPN2.
 
Tickets for both games are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.