Strong finish carries WVU to victory
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (AP) – After a disappointing 74-73 loss to LSU on Thursday night, No. 16 West Virginia needed a boost in confidence.
They got it on Sunday night, but it took them a while.
The Mountaineers came out with a sloppy first half and poor free-throw shooting Sunday night before recovering in the second half to beat Northern Kentucky 67-42.
Juwan Staten and Devin Williams led West Virginia with 12 points each, and Chad Jackson led the Norse with 12 points.
West Virginia came into the Bank of Kentucky Center looking sluggish. Northern Kentucky (3-5) controlled the pace of the game early, shooting the ball three times as often as West Virginia (8-1) in the game’s first five minutes.
But the Norse couldn’t capitalize. The teams combined for nine turnovers in the game’s first eight minutes, and Northern Kentucky turned the ball over five times in 33 seconds at one point.
Eleven minutes into the game the score was just 6-6 with the teams shooting a combined 5 of 28 from the field and 1 of 14 from 3-point range.
“In the first half, that was our opportunity to get an 8, 10, 12-point lead, but we missed so many point-blank opportunities,” Northern Kentucky coach Dave Bezold said. “We knew in the second half they were going to go on a run. We had the opportunity to give ourselves a little cushion, but that didn’t happen.”
With 6:51 left in the half, the Mountaineers went on a 7-0 run to go up 16-9, but faded again near the end of the half. They went into the locker room with a narrow 20-17 lead – their worst first-half offensive output of the season.
“Here’s the truth. When you don’t make a shot – and honestly, we could kick as many in as we made – they’re going to stand in the lane, and that really takes away our effectiveness,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “Once we got them out of the lane, we could attack them a little bit off the bounce and we finally made a couple of shots. We still didn’t make very many.”
After halftime, the Mountaineers came out with a quick 9-0 run, capped off by an authoritative dunk by guard Daxter Miles Jr., to go ahead 28-17. The outcome of the game was never again in question as West Virginia extended its lead. Forward Jonathan Holton scored all 10 of his points after halftime, and Williams scored nine of his 12 points in the second half.
The Mountaineers have played five games in the last two weeks, and Huggins alluded to the demanding schedule as a reason for his team’s poor shooting.
“I think we can shoot the ball – I don’t know,” Huggins said, frustrated. “(Shooting) is repetition. When you’re not in the gym as much and you don’t shoot the ball, you lose that touch, and it becomes really apparent when you bang them off the front of the rim like we did. We never got the ball up and so we didn’t have the chance to rebound it.”