Erik Stevenson needed only three words to sum up the play of the WVU men’s basketball team:
“We were pathetic,” the WVU guard said.
This coming after a 75-64 victory Thursday night against Stony Brook (N.Y.) inside the Coliseum, the Mountaineers’ fourth consecutive win heading into Christmas break.
Rather than cookies and presents, it would seem the Mountaineers should be expecting a lump of coal in their collective stockings during the holiday.
Why?
“We don’t pass the ball to open guys,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins began. “We give up straight-line drives. We don’t rebound the ball. We foul excessively.”
Those mistakes and others found their way into this game, even though WVU (10-2) never trailed and held a lead for nearly 38 minutes.
WVU’s offense struggled, connecting on just 23 of 55 (41.8%) from the floor. It was the Mountaineers’ second-lowest shooting percentage of the season.
What offense there was came from the outside.
WVU guards Erik Stevenson, Kedrian Johnson and Joe Touissant combined for 46 of the 75 points and 11 of WVU’s 23 baskets were 3-pointers.
Finding any type of inside presence for the Mountaineers against the Seawolves (4-9) was constantly met with resistance.
“I wouldn’t say we game planned for that,” said Stevenson, who finished with 16 points on 7 of 14 shooting. “When we were looking at their film, they run a bunch of funky little defenses. Their defense was all over the place. We call it a junk defense. It was mental. We weren’t all mentally there, and it showed.”
Make no mistake, WVU was happy to walk out with a win, but the Mountaineers’ mojo was not that of a dominant team getting set to begin Big 12 play.
WVU entered the game favored by 26 1/2 points, and that was even with starting forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. sitting out his second consecutive game with a knee injury.
Yet the Mountaineers never looked like that sort of team.
“We should have beaten that team by 40,” Stevenson said.
They did run out to a 19-point lead in the second half, but it was short-lived.
“We just had too many mistakes,” said Toussaint, who chipped in 12 points. “We weren’t locked in.”
Stony Brook played even with the Mountaineers on the boards, 33-33, with forward Frankie Policelli finishing with 14 rebounds for the Seawolves.
About the only real positive WVU could take from this one was it only committed eight turnovers, just the third time this season the Mountaineers finished a game with less than 10.
“This was called a trap game, that one game before Christmas,” Toussaint said. “No disrespect to them, but you play a low-major team and it’s a trap. It’s a test of where your mind is. It’s a test of where you are as a team. It was ugly. It wasn’t pretty at all.”
Stony Brook got as close as 33-32 with 17:12 remaining, but then Toussaint nailed two free throws, Tre Mitchell nailed a 3-pointer in the corner and Stevenson nailed another three for a 41-32 lead to keep the Seawolves at bay.
The Mountaineers will have the next four days to ponder their play, as many players are headed home for the holiday.
When they return, they have a major obstacle with two Big 12 road games against Kansas State and Oklahoma State waiting for them.
“If you play that bad, and you’re more excited about going home than you are in getting better, you probably ought to stay home,” Huggins said.
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