MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — After watching himself on film against North Texas, Oscar Tshiebwe knew his performance was not up to par.
WVU assistant coach Erik Martin didn’t need to watch the film and was quick to pull the WVU forward off to the side immediately following the game.
“I like coach Martin, because after the North Texas game, he waited for me and we had a little talk,” Tshiebwe said. “He told me, ‘The game of basketball, don’t worry about how you play. Just go play hard and you have to have fun.’ He told me not to worry about the last game, because you’ll never get it back. It was a good talk.”
After being held scoreless by the Mean Green and getting benched by WVU head coach Bob Huggins for a lack of hustle, Tshiebwe responded with 12 points on 6 of 8 shooting, five rebounds and three assists in the 11th-ranked Mountaineers’ 87-71 victory against No. 19 Richmond on Sunday at the WVU Coliseum.
“I just need to come out like I did today,” Tshiebwe said. “Today, I came out and said, ‘I’m going to run the floor. I’ve got to dominate, because no one can run with me.’ I spoke to coach Huggins before the game and he said, ‘Do what you do best and you’re going to be great.’ I ran the floor and played with energy. Everything was good today, I felt.”
Shooting standards
WVU shot a season-high 58.1% (36 of 62) from the floor in the win.
It was the highest a WVU team has shot in a game since Nov. 18, 2017, when the Mountaineers shot 58.4 percent against Morgan State.
It was also the best WVU has shot the ball against a nationally-ranked opponent since Dec. 22, 2005, when the Mountaineers shot 66.6% in a 92-68 upset of then-No. 7 Oklahoma.
“I think we did a good job of turning our defense into quick offense,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “We got shots to players who really needed to see the ball go in. Sean (McNeil) was really feeling it. Once we felt that, our offense was taking care of itself.”
WVU was 23 of 35 from the field in building a 52-30 halftime lead.
“Other than maybe a couple of Big 12 blowouts we had last year, which doesn’t happen often, I think that first half was one of the best halves we’ve played since I’ve been here,” WVU guard Deuce McBride said.
Everyone gets in
For the first time this season, the Mountaineers were able to clear the bench and walk-ons Spencer Macke and Jay Moore saw some action.
Macke played in seven games last season as a freshman and scored eight points, becoming a fan favorite along the way. He did not score against Richmond.
Moore, a 6-foot-3 guard from Beckley, joined the team this summer and saw his debut come against the Spiders.
He went 0 for 2 from the foul line and recorded an offensive rebound in his first college action.
Moore played high school ball at Greater Beckley Christian, where he scored nearly 2,000 points over his prep career.
He turned down some offers at smaller schools to become a walk-on with the Mountaineers.
“He’s been here since the summer and he comes to work every day,” McBride said of Moore. “He competes with us and he’s a good guy. He’s hopefully someone who will stick around and make our life in practice pretty hard.”
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