McShoot-out: McBride, McClung set for second showdown of the season, as West Virginia travels to Texas Tech

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It was just 15 days ago when Deuce McBride and Mac McClung turned a personal McShoot-out into must-see TV.

Each 3-pointer taken by the two point guards or drive to the basket created only more scoring for both West Virginia and Texas Tech, culminating with McBride’s drive to the basket being the game-winner, as McClung’s last-second potential answer bounced off the rim.

It resulted in a wild 88-87 victory for the Mountaineers, the most points scored against the Red Raiders this season.

WVU STATS
TEXAS TECH STATS

McBride finished with 24, 19 coming in the second half on only seven shots. McClung scored 30, with 24 coming in the second half.

The rematch comes at 9 p.m. Tuesday, at the United Supermarkets Arena, as No. 14 WVU travels to No. 7 Texas Tech.

Will we see another offensive outpouring from both teams?

“That would surprise me,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said Monday. “Generally, it’s been a rock fight. We’re guarding way better now than we were then, as well. I think they’ve guarded pretty consistently. They switch everything. They’ve got all of those guys about the same size and they’re all physically very strong.”

Neither guard has exactly cooled off since that night in Morgantown.

McBride enters the game after scoring a career-high 31 points against Kansas, which earned him Big 12 Player of the Week honors.

“I have a feeling, because I work for it every day. It’s all about preparation,” McBride said. “When I come into a game feeling more prepared and a little more motivated, I feel like every shot is going to go in.”

Aside from one off night against Oklahoma, McClung has scored at least 22 points in every game since.

That game against Oklahoma? Texas Tech’s junior guard was held to six points and was 0 for 7 shooting from the field.

“Whenever scorers have a bad night, I think it’s a combination of things,” Huggins said. “Yeah, Oklahoma had something to do with it, but you also just don’t shoot it well every game, nobody does.”

Both players are in the top five among Big 12 players in scoring.

WVU (13-5, 6-3 Big 12) is third in the conference in scoring and has averaged 83.8 points over its last four games.

Texas Tech (14-5, 6-4) leads the Big 12 in scoring defense (61.7 ppg), but has allowed 68.3 per game over its last four contests.

Maybe the two programs meet somewhere in the middle tonight?

Possibly, but one thing is for sure, Huggins said there is no detailed plan to slow down or double-team McClung.

“I don’t think so,” Huggins said. “I think we’re better defensively than we were the first game. Other than that, no. I kind of like where we were the (Kansas) game. I thought our intensity was better, our rotations were better and we were sending people to where we wanted them to go. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to contain some consistency in that regard.”

Note

Because of No. 2 Baylor going on pause over COVID-19 protocols, its two games scheduled for Feb. 15 and 18 against West Virginia have been postponed.

The Feb. 18 game was originally scheduled for Jan. 12, but WVU had to postpone that game due to virus protocols.

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