MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Bob Huggins had no answers Tuesday as to the extent of Isaiah’s Cottrell’s injured left leg.
“We won’t know until (Wednesday),” Huggins said, who added on his postgame radio interview that it did not look good for the West Virginia freshman forward.
Cottrell went down with 6:18 remaining in the first half and had to be helped off the floor.
After team doctors checked him out on the bench, Cottrell was helped to the locker room and did not return.
He was seen exiting the WVU Coliseum on crutches following the No. 9 Mountaineers 73-51 victory against Northeastern.
Huggins said Cottrell will undergo an MRI on Wednesday and the coach would know more then.
Replays showed the WVU forward was simply sliding to the left while playing defense on the perimeter when his left knee may have buckled slightly and he immediately reacted to the pain.
Cottrell was the highest-rated recruit the Mountaineers signed this season and was a top 100 player nationally, according to recruiting services.
He had scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds through the first 10 games in limited playing time.
Cottrell scored six points and grabbed two rebounds against North Texas and also scored six points in the loss against Gonzaga.
Fellow WVU freshman Jalen Bridges tweeted after the game, “Prayers for my brother, you gone shake back @IsaiahCottrell.”
One more for 300
The victory put Huggins at 299 career wins as the Mountaineers’ head coach.
In his 14th season at the school, Huggins — a Morgantown native — trails only Gale Catlett (439) in career men’s basketball coaching victories.
“I had absolutely no idea. I don’t look at those kinds of things,” said Huggins, who has 889 wins for his career. “My responsibility is to those guys in the locker room and try to to make them better and help them achieve their goals.”
In his 14 seasons, three different WVU teams have been ranked in the top 10 in the AP Top 25 and the Mountaineers have played in five Sweet 16s and a Final Four.
“It’s been great being home,” Huggins said. “For a kid who was running through Deckers Creek and Dug Hill in my early days and having an opportunity to come here and play, it’s great to be back.
“I came here to try and do the best job I possibly could and elevate this program to national status.”
Tough 3-pointers
The Mountaineers shot just 9.5% (2 of 21) from 3-point range, the lowest WVU has shot from behind the arc since Feb. 22, 2012, in a loss against Notre Dame, when the Mountaineers shot 1 of 11 (9.1%).
“For us, we obviously didn’t shoot the ball the way we wanted to tonight,” WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “The plus on that is you saw us on the offensive glass. You saw us playing defense and getting steals and doing the stuff we need to do when we’re not making jumpers. It’s one game. We’ll come back in and get some shots up. We’ll make shots the next game and that’s that.”
WVU forced Northeastern into 19 turnovers and scored 22 points off turnovers.
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