MORGANTOWN — By the time Jalen Moore had walked out of the WVU Coliseum on Tuesday, he had to have felt he was playing against six or seven defenders for most of the game.
Oakland’s junior point guard led the entire country in assists last season and scored 17.9 points per game, which made him a clear focal point of WVU’s defense.
“He’s a good player,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “We watched him a lot on film. I actually like his game.”
Following the Mountaineers’ 60-53 victory over the Golden Grizzlies, Moore was held to just 2 of 16 shooting and turned the ball over 13 times.
It’s a record. No opposing player has ever turned the ball over that many times in a game against WVU.
“Our point guards put a lot of ball pressure on him,” Sherman continued. “We have Kedrian (Johnson) and he put a lot of pressure on him. (Moore) played 37 minutes and no one wants to go through that the whole game.
“We sped him up a little bit and got him uncomfortable. We made him do some things that he wasn’t comfortable doing.”
Still, 13 turnovers by one player?
“Yeah, I didn’t think it was 13,” Sherman said. “I knew that we turned him over a good bit, but I didn’t know it was 13. I didn’t know he was 2 of 16, either, but he’s a good player.”
Sherman deal with leg cramps
With 9:38 remaining in the game, Sherman leaped into the air to intercept a pass and appeared to land hard on his right leg.
He immediately grabbed his right calf and asked to come out of the game.
Minutes later, Sherman went back into the game and then appeared to hurt his left leg.
The WVU senior guard said he was simply dealing with cramps.
“It’s good, just a little cramping,” he said. “I’m good, though. The first time, it was my right calf. The second time, it was inside my hamstring. It was both legs, though. I tried to fight through it as best I could.”
WVU head coach Bob Huggins said Sherman has had to deal with cramping during practices.
“He’s been doing that,” Huggins said. “He did that in the charity (exhibition) game. He does that in practice. He’s lost six or seven pounds during practice. He’s a tough kid. He’ll be back.”
News and notes
- The Mountaineers improved to 12-3 in season openers under Huggins, who picked up his 901st career victory.
- Huggins’ next win will tie him with Bob Knight for fifth place on the all-time Division I wins list and he is two shy of tying Roy Williams for fourth place.
- Dating back to last season, Sean McNeil has made at least one 3-pointer in 16 consecutive games. He had two threes against Oakland, giving him 100 for his career.
- WVU improved to 81-7 in home games during the regular season against nonconference opponents under Huggins.
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