Not bullies just yet, but Culver and Tshiebwe are getting closer, as WVU rolls past Boston

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — No one is ready just yet to call the West Virginia duo of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe a pair of bullies, but they took a step in that direction on Friday.

Behind constant pressure on the inside and Tshiebwe’s second career double-double, the Mountaineers powered past Boston University, 69-44, in front of an announced attendance of 10,743 inside the WVU Coliseum.

“I wouldn’t say we’re bullies inside yet,” said Culver, who finished with 10 points and four rebounds, but was in foul trouble throughout the game. “We still haven’t worked out our spacing totally when we’re on the floor together. Once we figure that out, everything should play out like it should.”

Against the smaller Terriers (3-3), WVU’s plan was to push the ball inside early and often.

The result? The Mountaineers (4-0) scored a season-high 48 points in the paint and added 10 more on second-chance points.

BOX SCORE

Tshiebwe finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Not bad for a young man who missed practice on Thursday, because he was traveling back from Ottawa, Canada, where he said he visited the U.S. embassy there to fix his passport issues. He said leaving the U.S. was a necessary part of the process.

Those issues kept Tshiebwe from traveling to Spain this summer, when WVU played three exhibition games there, but he will be allowed to travel with the Mountaineers when they face Northern Iowa on Tuesday in the first round of the Cancun Challenge, in Mexico.

“Everything is good now,” Tshiebwe said. “I had to go to Canada to get it fixed, but everything is good now and I am so happy to be able to travel with my team.”

Tshiebwe explained that his new passport arrived at the embassy and he had to leave the country to retrieve it, so he rode nine hours overnight with some WVU student managers.

“I just watched live NBA games on my phone mostly,” he said. “It was a fun trip.”

It was not that fun of a trip to Morgantown for the Terriers, who were coming off a 78-70 upset win over South Carolina on Tuesday.

They were forced to guard the paint for most of the game and then were held to just 33% shooting (17 of 52) from the field.

“We’re getting better (on defense), but then we got away from what we started doing at Pitt,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We got away from it today for some odd reason unknown to man. It was guys that you wouldn’t suspect.”

As for Culver and Tshiebwe, they spent the first three games of the season trading off. Whenever Culver had a good game, Tshiebwe was off and vice versa.

If not for Culver’s foul trouble — he was called for four of West Virginia’s 10 fouls — their combined output of 31 points and 14 rebounds could have been more impressive.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Huggins said. “They’re still getting in each other’s way. We need to make sure we can get each of them a chance to get isolated. If they’re both isolated, they’re going to score.”

They both did that early, as they combined for 10 points and eight rebounds over the first nine minutes to help the Mountaineers race out to a 20-5 lead.

Tshiebwe kept scoring as Culver went to the bench with two early fouls. Tshiebwe’s highlight opened the second half when he picked up a steal near mid-court and raced down the floor for a thunderous dunk.

“I’m still learning how to play with D.C.,” Tshiebwe said. “I think we’re still learning how to play with each other. He’s helped make my game so much better. My post moves are so much better, because of going up against him in practice.”

When that moment clicks for both forwards, what will it look like for the Mountaineers?

“It’ll happen for sure,” said WVU guard Jermaine Haley, who added 13 points and three rebounds. “So far it hasn’t. It’s been one or the other. I tell them all the time it might not be their night, but you can still go out and rebound and play defense.

“When they both get it at the same time, it’s going to be hard for teams to defend us, that’s for sure.”