WVU hands TCU first loss of the season
By Leah Nxumalo | Sat, 01/03/2015 - 23:20
No. 17 West Virginia (12-1) came into Wilkerson-Greines Athletic Center to face an undefeated TCU Horned Frogs squad—off to the best start in school history—without star guard Juwan Staten. The 6-1senior, averaging 16.1 points and 4.2 assists per game, sat out the game with flu-like symptoms.
Staten’s absence was felt as TCU established its dominance over WVU early in the first half with a 7-0 run. WVU couldn’t find its offensive rhythm, shooting only for 35 percent, and committed several turnovers, which brought them to a game high ten-point deficit at 22-12 with six minutes left to play in the first half.
However, freshman Jevon Carter became an important tool in the shed for the Mountaineers as he kept them in contest with a couple of jumpers toward the end of the first half. Carter also nailed a buzzer-beater to end the half, which put the Mountaineers within two at 32-30. Carter ended the game with an impressive 7 points, 6 assists and 6 steals.
By the second half, WVU came in with a new philosophy, which involved using their bigs to score, applying full court pressure to force TCU to play faster and they improved to shoot for 52 percent from the field.
United Bank Star of the Game Gary Browne re-energized the offense with a season-high 16 points (all scored in the second half) on 5-9 shooting. Browne’s jump shot with six left in the game gave WVU a comfortable 64-54 lead over the Horned Frogs.
Daxtor Miles also came up big for WVU as he made two huge steals in the first half, both of which were converted to points, to keep the Mountaineers in the game. His lay-up early in the second half gave the Mountaineers their first lead of the game at 38-37.
Devin Williams scored 14 points on 4-7 shooting and added 8 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block for WVU. Kyan Anderson led TCU with 19 points, 3 assists,1 steal and 1 block. Pitt transfer Trey Zeigler of TCU finished with 17 points, 4 assists, 6 rebounds and 1 block.
The Mountaineers are now 13-1 and will play Texas Tech (10-4) at United Supermarkets Arena on Monday.
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