MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — It began with a hug from Bob Huggins, and then a Senior Day first, as Chase Harler grabbed the ring box his father, John, had been holding onto and proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Lindsey Baker.
“I was a little nervous about the whole engagement thing,” Harler said after West Virginia’s 76-64 victory against No. 4 Baylor on Saturday inside the WVU Coliseum. “I picked up the ring on Wednesday and then I talked to her parents on Wednesday.”
Harler and Baker have dated since both were in the eighth grade and live together in
Morgantown.
“I had it hidden in my white T-shirt drawer,” Harler said. “She never uses my white T-shirts, so I knew that was a great place to hide it.
“She had no idea. She said, ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is no joke.’ ”
Huggins’ thoughts on the moment?
“I think he’s marrying up,” he joked. “So, I thought he should grab it while he could.”
And if the Mountaineers (21-10, 9-9 Big 12) were going to grab any momentum heading into postseason play, Saturday was their final opportunity.
It was the kind of day that somehow perfectly summed up the Mountaineers’ regular
season.
Every turning minute was another storyline, from Harler’s marriage proposal to West Virginia starting the game 0 for 8 shooting with four turnovers.
Facing a 9-0 deficit against the fourth-ranked team in the country, West Virginia no longer stumbled. It no longer backed off.
Instead, the Mountaineers fought back.
“We got back into it through our defense,” said WVU freshman Miles McBride, who finished with 12 points and one thunderous dunk you’ll likely see on ESPN a few times Sunday. “We started guarding them and started to get a little physical. We knew they could make shots, so we had to make them as uncomfortable as possible.”
The sold-out crowd of 14,000-plus were not ready to write off this season in disappointing fashion, and somehow the energy of WVU responding with it’s own 11-0 run spread throughout the arena.
It was game on from there. The two heavyweights traded punches and body blows for 30-some minutes.
It was just a week ago when Huggins — then simply trying to build some sort of confidence in a shaken team — said he would take a win playing in Sabraton if he could get it.
Well, this one ended up being the Thrilla at Marilla.
Each possession brought its own level of anticipation. Baylor forward Freddie Gillespie was somehow not ruled out of bounds while trying to save a ball from going out of bounds, even though his right foot was clearly across the line.
That brought a chorus of boos to the officials, as they headed to the locker room for halftime.
Thirty minutes later, no one was even mentioning the play. That’s the type of game it was.
“You’ve got to be locked in on every possession in a game like that,” WVU guard Jermaine Haley said. “You slip up on just three possessions, the game can be blown wide open. You have to keep a level head about you, especially when the crowd gets into it and our crowd was great tonight. It did feel like a championship fight in some ways.”
Oscar Tshiebwe got in early foul trouble in the second half and Baylor took advantage by going up seven points.
Gillespie got in foul trouble soon after and WVU responded with its own run to get back into it.
Then came the knockout blows by the Mountaineers.
After being denied on one dunk attempt, Emmitt Matthews came up with two more that counted.
Tshiebwe hauled in a pass from Haley, turned, and slammed one home, while hanging on the rim.
Then it was McBride’s dunk, the kind that was felt at all points throughout the state.
“Oscar really got me that dunk,” McBride said. “He ran the floor so well and sealed. I was hoping he would get out of the way before he got dunked on, too.”
Minutes later, the Coliseum floor was filled with rushing students and the players truly had a moment to celebrate on a day that had a little bit of everything.
“Their players played extremely hard and they deserved to win,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “I thought we competed. We battled. They just played better than us and tougher than us today.”
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