MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Bob Huggins had an easy explanation as to how Texas shot an amazing 70% from the field in the first half of West Virginia’s 84-82 comeback victory against the Longhorns on Saturday.
“We gave up so many straight-line drives in the first half, it was ridiculous,” he said.
The result? Texas missed only nine of its 30 attempts in the first 20 minutes and had 26 points in the paint.
The analytics of the game will tell you it would be nearly impossible for the Longhorns to keep up that kind of shooting, as long as the 13th-ranked Mountaineers continued to play with five players in the second half.
Huggins wasn’t about to leave this game up to analytics, though.
“I don’t think you would want to print what was said at halftime,” Huggins said. “I don’t think it had a lot to do with any of that. It had to do about the work that we’ve put in and why don’t we do what we’re taught to do? Our enthusiasm to get it done and our ability to help one another, those are the kinds of things we didn’t do a good job of in the first half and did a terrific job of in the second half.”
Texas was held to just 29 points and eight points in the paint in the second half.
“It’s our defense, and we just weren’t doing it in the first half,” WVU point guard Deuce McBride said. “I think guys realized it. We got into halftime and Huggs kind of laid into us, and he should have, honestly.”
Players never forget
Maybe no WVU player took the team’s 72-70 loss against Texas on Jan. 9 harder than forward Emmitt Matthews Jr.
“Last time we played them, obviously things didn’t pan out to how we all wanted,” Matthews said. “I put that game on myself personally, no matter what the team said. I missed two free throws that could have potentially sealed the game. I took that personally, so today I just wanted to give it my all.”
Matthews responded with 14 points and seven rebounds, but also found himself diving on the floor for loose balls and getting knocked to the ground after making a good offensive move near the rim.
“I wanted to make sure every time there was a loose ball, I was diving for it,” he said.
Road warriors
The win was West Virginia’s fifth straight on the road in Big 12 play.
For the season, the Mountaineers (15-6, 8-4 Big 12) are now 9-3 away from the Coliseum.
WVU was 7-8 away from home last season and 4-14 during the 2018-19 season.
“We know for us to do what we want to do in the Big 12, you have to win home games, but we’ve given up home games we should have won,” Matthews said. “Winning on the road is one of the hardest things to do, just because you’re not in familiar territory.
“For me, I like to think of it as revenge for my first two years here. My first year, every team took it to us and we couldn’t do anything about it. They tried to beat us by 30 or 40, it didn’t matter. This year, I feel like is a big year for us and winning on the road just happens to be one of the things we’re doing really well.”
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