Fighting back pain and gasping for air Saturday, Kedrian Johnson finally found a way for West Virginia to get past UAB.
Johnson played a major role in the Mountaineers’ 65-59 victory at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala. He finished with a season-high nine points, added four assists and did not turn the ball over.
It was Johnson’s second steal of the game, though, that put the senior on the brink of coming out of the game.
He had just knocked the ball loose from UAB guard Jordan Walker near midcourt and both guards went diving after the ball.
UAB forward K.J. Buffen — listed at 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds — also dove on the play but landed squarely on Johnson, who also partially landed on the ball.
“Kedy didn’t want to come out,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show. “He’s a tough kid.”
Johnson instead gathered himself enough to make two free throws to cut UAB’s lead to 52-49 with 5:11 remaining.
Johnson, who entered the game making just 46.7% from the foul line, went 4 for 4 in the final 31 seconds to help secure the win.
In all, Johnson went 7 for 8 from the foul line for the game.
“Kedy’s been in the gym,” Huggins said. “There is a direct correlation to those who are in the gym and to those who are not. He wants to be a good player. He wants to win.”
Huggins hasn’t heard of any Big 12 COVID changes
Variants of the COVID-19 virus is once again wreaking havoc on schedules for professional and college athletics.
As of Saturday, 17 men’s college basketball teams were on a COVID pause, including No. 4 UCLA and No. 15 Ohio State.
The virus also canceled scheduled nonconference games Saturday that featured No. 16 Seton Hall and No. 18 Tennessee.
Under current regulations, WVU, which went on its own two-week COVID pause last season, is allowing full capacity inside the WVU Coliseum for home games, although that could change. WVU’s next home game is Wednesday against Youngstown State.
The WVU Sports Information Department told The Dominion Post that unvaccinated WVU athletes and coaches are still tested regularly, as well as those who show symptoms of the virus.
As for WVU’s future schedule, the Big 12’s policy is still in place that states any team that does not have enough athletes to compete in a conference game due to COVID-19 will forfeit the game.
Huggins was asked during a Zoom call on Friday if there had been any discussions within the Big 12 on changing the league’s COVID-19 policy or if the conference was planning to limit attendance to the Big 12 tournament in March.
The Big 12 tournament was held last year with limited seating for fans.
“I haven’t heard a word about it,” Huggins said. “Obviously we all watch TV and we see the numbers spiking back up, but I haven’t heard a word about it.”
News and notes
Sean McNeil’s streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer ended at 25. McNeil finished with 12 points, but was 0 for 4 from behind the arc.
WVU finished with just six assists. The last time the Mountaineers had fewer than seven and still won was Jan. 14, 2017 against Texas.
WVU had 10 turnovers in the first half with Taz Sherman having five of them. In the second half, WVU turned the ball over just four times. Sherman had two of those.
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