MORGANTOWN — Gabe Osabuohien was not suspended, that much WVU head coach Bob Huggins made clear following Monday’s 78-73 loss against Kansas State.
“He wasn’t suspended, but we don’t have room in our program for Gabe’s actions,” Huggins said.
Osabuohien did not play in the game and sat and watched from the bench.
He was whistled for two technical fouls against Oklahoma State for arguing with referees last Saturday and was ejected from the game in the closing minutes.
It was the second consecutive game Osabuohien was charged with at least one technical foul for arguing with an official.
“If that was his first, I mean O.K., you lost it and you have to understand you can’t do that anymore,” Huggins said. “It wasn’t the first time.”
WVU hosts No. 6 Kansas on Saturday, and Huggins hinted that Osabuohien could get back in WVU’s rotation by doing the right things.
“You don’t do things that hurt your teammates, and he knows that,” Huggins said. “He’s not in my bad graces, but you’re going to do things right. I have all the respect and admiration for the basketball program and the people who have played and coached here and the matter in which they played the game. We’re not going to vary from that.”
Isaiah Cottrell has career night
Isaiah Cottrell’s night began with an 18-footer that gave WVU an early lead.
Over the course of the 26 minutes the redshirt freshman played, Cottrell displayed an inside and outside game that led to a career-high 13 points.
“He’s getting better,” Huggins said. “He’s working at it. Those were really the first power moves that he’s made that were successful. We knew he could shoot the ball from three.
“When you haven’t played a lot of games at this level, you hurry things. I thought one shot in the second half he hurried a little bit. He’s going to be a really good player, but we can’t expect him to be a world-beater as a freshman.”
Cottrell added two 3-pointers in the second half. The second one came on an inbounds play that gave WVU a 54-44 lead with 16:10 remaining, but the Mountaineers scored just two points over the next nine minutes.
“I saw his confidence,” WVU point guard Kedrian Johnson said. “Some days, he may not seem confident, but he really had it on display for everyone to see.”
Battle of the boards
With Kansas State playing with a smaller lineup for much of the game, WVU came away with a 37-34 rebounding advantage and a 14-8 advantage in second-chance points.
That all came just one game after getting out-rebounded by 24 against Oklahoma State.
Jalen Bridges led the Mountaineers with 10 boards.
News and notes
** A total of 44 fouls were called, with the Mountaineers getting charged with 23 of them. K-State took advantage by going 31 of 39 from the foul line.
“It seemed like every time down, there was a whistle, and it’s hard to play like that,” Huggins said. “I’ve got to look at it to see what we were doing wrong. As far away as I was, it was hard to see what was wrong with what was going on.”
** Taz Sherman finished with 23 points for WVU, the ninth time this season he’s scored 20 or more in a game.
** In the last two games, WVU has been outscored 88-59 in the second half.
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