No. 13 West Virginia never trails in victory against Iowa State

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The smile on Oscar Tshiebwe’s face was enough to tell the story of what kind of offensive night 13th-ranked West Virginia had in its 76-61 win against Iowa State on Wednesday.

His words were just as good.

“My coaches always tell me that if I’m that close to the basket then shoot the ball,” the freshman forward said.

Except on this particular occasion, the 6-foot-9, 258-pounder was nearly on his backside, but with no Iowa State defender between him and the basket, Tshiebwe heeded the words of his coaches.

“I was just doing what they told me,” he said with a grin.

One granny shot later, Tshiebwe’s night was complete with a good story.

BOX SCORE

“I said, ‘Wow,’ ” WVU point guard Jordan McCabe said. “We were on the other side of that last year, when teams would throw up crazy stuff and it would go in, but that was one heck of a shot.”

The Mountaineers had a few of them on this night in front of an announced attendance of 11,103, including a 3-pointer from Chase Harler that rolled around the rim three times before finally falling through.

“I meant for that to happen,” Harler later joked after scoring 14 points off the bench in the win.

The game was reminiscent of recent WVU-Iowa State match-ups inside the Coliseum, which is to say WVU couldn’t miss and the Cyclones couldn’t defend.

WVU entered the game on a four-game home winning streak against Iowa State. In those four wins, the Mountaineers averaged 89.8 points.

In last season’s 90-75 win in Morgantown, it was Jermaine Haley who broke out with a career-high 28 points.

This time around, it was more of a balanced effort that began with Emmitt Matthews’ hot hand before he gave way to his teammates.

Having gone since before Christmas without a game in double figures, Matthews hit his first three shots and two free throws for nine points before the game was even eight minutes old.

“He’s worked at it,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “Guys say they’re in the gym. Yeah, they’re in the gym listening to music. That doesn’t count. He’s put a lot of time in and it’s been good work. It hasn’t been screwing off.”

He added another 3-pointer minutes later to give him 12 and even Matthews’ first miss of the game turned into an offensive rebound and a dunk by Tshiebwe, who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season.

Included in those stats was Tshiebwe’s granny shot, but he was a solid 7 of 9 shooting from the floor.

It was just that kind of game for the Mountaineers (18-4, 6-3), who remain three games behind top-ranked Baylor in the Big 12 standings and two games behind third-ranked Kansas.

“When you make your shots, everything looks better,” Harler said.

Iowa State (9-13, 2-7), meanwhile, dropped its fourth consecutive game, it’s longest losing streak of the season.

In the process, West Virginia’s defense put the clamps on Iowa State guard Tyrese Haliburton.

The Big 12’s leader in assists — Huggins called Haliburton the Big 12’s most NBA-ready player right now on Wednesday — the slender 6-foot-5 guard finished with 12 points, but just three assists and two turnovers.

“We were able to take him out of the game and when we did that, they didn’t have a lot of other options,” said Matthews, who finished with 12 points and four rebounds. “We pretty much knew where he was at the whole time.”

The Mountaineers, who visit Oklahoma on Saturday, shot 50% (29 of 58) from the floor. That’s just the fourth time WVU has shot that well, or better, in a game this season.

WVU did commit 19 turnovers and went just 12 of 24 from the foul line, but held Iowa State to just 5 of 16 from 3-point range and the Cyclones never held the lead.

Derek Culver added 12 points and Haley chipped in 11, as the Mountaineers had five players in double figures for the fourth time this season.