CINCINNATI — West Virginia’s first taste of a true road game this season was a mixed bag that completely burst in the final minutes.
Xavier forward Jack Nunge scored seven of his 17 points over the final six minutes and his wide open 3-pointer with 4:38 remaining Saturday gave the Musketeers an 84-74 victory in front of 10,460 fans inside the Cintas Center.
Nunge added 14 rebounds for good measure — his first double-double of the season — as he and Xavier (6-3) took control of the Big East-Big 12 Battle matchup after the Mountaineers had taken a nine-point lead early in the second half.
“We just had great effort in blocking out and denying passes,” Nunge said about the comeback. “We did a great job of staying the course. We never lost confidence. We thought things would go our way if we kept fighting.”
West Virginia’s advantage sat at 49-40 with 18:45 remaining, but from there Xavier continued to chip away by taking advantage of poor WVU defense.
“A lot of it was dribble penetration,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We have a propensity to stand on the side of people and not get in front of them. When you’re not in front of them, they get a straight-line to the goal.”
Xavier outscored WVU 42-32 in the paint, while shooting 62.5% (15 of 24) from the floor in the second half.
“We just didn’t execute the way we should have,” said WVU forward Jimmy Bell Jr., who finished with 12 points and six rebounds. “I feel like our guards, not to put it on them, but they weren’t getting around screens the way they should have and the bigs were getting there late. It’s something we have to adjust to.”
The Mountaineers (6-2) overcame some early obstacles to gain some kind of control in the first half.
Their first two possessions went down to the final seconds on the shot clock; one ended with a violation, while the other saw Emmitt Matthews Jr. nail a 3-pointer.
In a way, maybe those first two possessions were some kind of sign, which is to say weird things were happening, but WVU kept finding some positives along the way.
WVU’s lead grew to as much as 11 points late in the first half, but it came while the Mountaineers were throwing bad passes into the courtside seats and photographers’ row and getting beat on the boards.
The Mountaineers overcame all of that by making its first five shots and 10 of its first 14 attempts in front of a hostile sold-out crowd geared toward booing Huggins at almost every opportunity.
Huggins spent 16 seasons at Cincinnati — Xavier’s city rival — and the Musketeers’ student section roasted him throughout the game.
But, back came Xavier, which survived its own adversity with leading scorer Souley Boum picking up his third foul late in the first half.
They continued to drive to the basket, nail an occasional 3-pointer and was a solid 23 of 30 from the foul line.
What was a nine-point deficit early in the second half was whittled down to five and then tied at 58 when Bloum scored on a drive to the basket.
It was back-and-forth from there, and when Matthews nailed two free throws to tie the game at 70 with 5:41 remaining, it ended up being the Mountaineers’ final stand.
Nunge hit his three seconds later and then Boum was fouled while taking a 3-pointer and he connected on all three free throws.
Meanwhile, WVU made just one of its last 12 shots.
“I know we got our tails kicked,” Huggins said. “They made shots and we didn’t make shots. We didn’t do it. It’s frustrating for everyone.”
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