MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — In a five-minute span Saturday, Derek Culver was a one-man show.
He scored 10 consecutive points on his way to 21 in the first half against Florida.
He needed just six shots to score those 21 and was an impressive 9 of 11 from the foul line.
Culver finished with a career-high 28 points and added 12 rebounds in West Virginia’s 85-80 loss against Florida in the WVU Coliseum.
His second half was a slightly different story. Culver was 1 of 5 from the floor and 5 of 6 from the foul line.
“The opposition went back into the locker room and fine tuned their defense,” Culver said. “They tried to keep me away from the ball and keep me away from the hoop.”
Culver entered the game as a 54% free-throw shooter, but went 14 of 17 against Florida.
“I’ve found a pretty good rhythm that I’m probably going to stick with,” Culver said. “It’s less ball movement and keeping my elbow tucked in. It’s probably something I’ll stick with.”
The final possessions
In beating Texas Tech on Monday, WVU went a perfect 10 of 10 from the field in the final minutes.
Against Florida was a different story. The Mountaineers (11-5) missed their final four shots and six of their last seven.
Trailing, 83-80, with 1:36 remaining, WVU’s final three possessions were not a thing of beauty.
Sean McNeil missed a 3-pointer coming of the dribble at the 1:23 mark, but Gabe Osabuohien drew an offensive foul to keep the deficit at three points.
Coming out of a timeout, Culver nearly threw the ball away with 42 seconds left, but the Mountaineers kept the possessions on a held ball.
That turned into a shot-clock violation, as a pass got tipped away into Florida’s side of the court and Taz Sherman had to chase it down and launch a shot from just inside mid-court.
WVU head coach Bob Huggins said the Mountaineers didn’t run what he had instructed and there was too much talking going on in the huddles.
“It’s my fault and I take all the responsibility. It started a while ago, but we’ve got more guys talking in the huddle (than we need),” Huggins said. “Everybody is talking and no one knows what they’re doing. We did not come out of the huddle knowing what we were doing, even though I’m trying to draw it up. I’m telling them what to do. I’m trying to draw it up on the clipboard. I’m trying to explain what’s about to happen, but I’ve got other guys talking away about what they think should happen. We’ve got to cut that out. We should’ve cut it out before.”
Now trailing, 85-80, WVU’s final possession saw Deuce McBride miss a 3-pointer, but grab the offensive rebound. He threw it out to McNeil for another three that also missed and Florida ran off the final seven seconds.
Stats of note
* Florida scored 26 points on fast breaks, with 18 coming in the second half.
* McBride picked up his third foul with 18:47 remaining in the game, while WVU held a 44-37 lead. He came back into the game at the 12:56 mark with the Mountaineers trailing, 61-58.
* Taz Sherman scored 11 points for WVU, all of it in the second half.
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