COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Gabe Osabuohien played just 13 minutes Tuesday night.
He spent part of the second half sitting on the bench trying to shake off a hip injury that came while scrapping for a loose ball.
He scored no points and didn’t even attempt a single shot.
He grabbed four rebounds and had a couple of assists, nothing to exactly write home about.
Yet, Osabuohien saved the No. 17 West Virginia men’s basketball team in its 76-72 victory against Iowa State.
He saved the Mountaineers from not only losing this game, but also from the embarrassment that would have likely followed if WVU would have dropped a game to a team still looking for its first win in 2021, and its first Big 12 win of the season.
Osabuohien may have saved the season, too, well, that may be a stretch. WVU’s next six games — all against top 25 teams — will essentially determine just how competitive this WVU bunch is.
While Osabuohien’s offensive stats did not stand out, he did it with his defense.
Concerning this WVU team, that statement may never have been more important, because defense is not of the highest priority at the moment for these Mountaineers.
“It means a lot in a sense, but at the end of the day, it shouldn’t have come down to one defensive stop to win the game, especially against Iowa State,” Osabuohien said. “There’s no way it should come down to a one-possession game with that type of team.”
That’s exactly what happened, though, as the Cyclones (2-10, 0-7 Big 12) nearly erased all of a 15-point deficit in the second half to get within 74-72 with 1:38 remaining.
That’s when Osabuohien took over defensively.
First, he stood his ground against Iowa State big man Solomon Young — 15 points in his first game back from recovering from COVID-19 — and came up with a block that fell back to Young. He was forced to put up an awkward shot after that and it fell right into Emmitt Matthews’ hands.
“Someone had helped on the drive and I rotated to the big, who was under the rim,” Osabuohien said. “I just made a defensive play and blocked his shot. He took a difficult shot. We work on that every day, rotating to help the helper. That’s just regular basketball for me.”
The score remained 74-72 when Iowa State guard Rasir Bolton drove frantically down the right side of the lane with 6.4 seconds left.
Bolton is, by far, the Cyclones’ top offensive player and had torched the Mountaineers for 25 points in the game back in Morgantown on Dec. 18.
What happened next, we’re not exactly sure.
Bolton was driving and Osabuohien was at the bottom of the lane standing there waiting to make a play.
For some reason Bolton didn’t stop. He didn’t try to go around Osabuohien. He didn’t slow up to shoot a jumper. He didn’t look to pass to a teammate.
Instead, Bolton just simply collided into Osabuohien at full speed.
The tale of the tape: Bolton is 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, while Osabuohien is 6-7, 235.
No way Bolton was going to end up on the better end of that collision.
“When you talk about Gabe, he has a defensive mix tape,” WVU forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “When you see a guy has a defensive mix tape, there’s not many of those other guys out there.
“He’s O.K., by the way.”
We’re not sure if we can say the same about Bolton.
“That was the play of the game, without a question,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said.
“He had been driving the whole game, so I just tried to get in front of my guy and take a charge,” added Osabuohien said. “I guess it was a no-call, but if anything, it would have been a charge.”
The no-call led to Taz Sherman grabbing the loose ball that had been jarred out of Bolton’s hands and getting credit for the steal.
He was immediately fouled and made two free throws for the final score.
“Honestly, it was kind of scary, because Gabe already had a hurt hip,” Sherman said. “He was going full speed, but Gabe is a solid dude. Gabe stopped his momentum, but they collided chest-to-chest. It was a scary situation. I’m just glad everyone is O.K.”
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