No. 6 West Virginia set to face TCU after emotional loss against Baylor

MORGANTOWN — If it was a heavyweight fight, then No. 6 West Virginia took one too many blows to the gut in Tuesday’s 94-89 overtime loss to No. 3 Baylor.

“I don’t know about a heavyweight fight,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “That’s a really good basketball team, obviously. I think we’re a really good basketball team. We just didn’t do what we had to do.

“We’re a very young basketball team. You’re talking about a bunch of guys who are fourth-year juniors and fifth-year seniors over there. They’re men.”

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Emotions and energy played big roles, as West Virginia (17-7, 10-5 Big 12) tried to pull off its biggest win of the season and stay mathematically alive for the Big 12 championship.

Both teams traded enough punches that the game itself may have taken on a life of its own. Eventually, something had to give.

“In overtime, we kind of lost our momentum and lost our energy,” WVU guard Sean McNeil said.

The Mountaineers now find themselves in a literal five-team battle royale for second place in the Big 12, along with Kansas, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Texas.

If WVU sweeps its two remaining games — Thursday vs. TCU and Saturday vs. Oklahoma State — the Mountaineers are the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

If they lose both or even just one, there is the possibility the Mountaineers could fall as far as sixth.

The question now is whether or not the Mountaineers are down for the count after the emotional roller coaster the Baylor game turned out to be?

“What I talked about in the locker room is we can’t let one loss turn into three,” Huggins said. “We can still finish second in the league, but we’ve got to take care of business.

“We’ve got to concentrate on TCU, and after that, we’ve got to concentrate on Oklahoma State, who is playing extremely well. We’ve got to grow up. We can’t let one loss turn into three.”

It begins with Thursday’s 7 p.m. game against the Horned Frogs (12-11, 5-9), who have already secured eighth place in the Big 12.

TCU has lost four of its last five, including a 69-49 loss against Texas Tech on Tuesday.

The Horned Frogs fell to the Mountaineers, 74-66, on Feb. 23, a game that saw WVU guard Taz Sherman come off the bench to score 23 points.

Derek Culver had 18 points and 14 rebounds against TCU, but will be coming off the Baylor game, in which he was held to just three shots.

“We have the 24-hour rule,” WVU guard Deuce McBride said. “Whether you win or lose, you can’t dwell on it too long. (On Wednesday), we start getting ready for TCU. It’s getting to crunch time. We’ve got to get that game and move on.”

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