MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — What Emmitt Matthews Jr. began by leaping through the air, Miles McBride finished at the foul line and with a rebound.
West Virginia advanced to the championship game of the Cancun Challenge on Tuesday, after a hard-fought 60-55 victory against Northern Iowa, at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya, but not until erasing a 15-point second-half deficit and surviving its poorest shooting night of the season.
The Mountaineers (5-0) advance to play Wichita State (6-0) at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday for the tournament’s championship.
It would not have happened, though, if not for a wild second half that saw WVU erase a 42-27 deficit in which very little went right.
Over the final 10 minutes, McBride, a freshman from Cincinnati, did very little wrong.
“He’s in the huddle, at the end, saying, ‘Just give it to me, I’m good,’ ” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said.
McBride, who finished with 18 points and five assists, was, indeed good.
So, too, was Matthews in the final seconds.
The sophomore forward leaped into the air to tip in a missed shot from Taz Sherman with 16.5 seconds remaining that gave WVU a 56-55 lead.
Matthews was undercut by Northern Iowa guard Spencer Haldeman on the play and he landed hard on his head.
Haldeman was called for a Flagrant 1 foul on the play, giving the Mountaineers two free throws and possession of the ball.
Sean McNeil made one of the free throws and McBride made another when he was fouled on the inbounds pass for a 58-55 lead.
“We almost didn’t get that in,” Huggins said. “And then I thought they were going to call traveling.”
Northern Iowa’s A.J. Green, who was hounded all night by a WVU defense that kept him to just 2 of 15 shooting, then drove up the floor and tried to take a contested lay-up that came off the rim and fell right to McBride for the rebound.
The freshman calmly made two free throws for the final score.
The Mountaineers struggled with their shot and Northern Iowa’s zone defense throughout the game, but especially in the first half.
WVU was just 1 of 10 from 3-point range and wasn’t much better inside the arc in the first 20 minutes.
Northern Iowa (6-1) was just as bad, going 1 of 12 from 3-point range during the first half that saw the Panthers hold a slim 23-20 lead.
Things were so bad, the highlight of the first half may have come during a simple inbounds play. West Virginia was ready to throw the ball into action, but the mop guy was still on the baseline wiping up a damp spot.
Brandon Knapper had to pass around him, before the play was whistled dead.
As for the rest of the half, well, the Mountaineers were held to just two field goals over the final nine minutes, missed the front end of three one-and-one free-throw attempts and went for more than four minutes without scoring.
Behind Isaiah Brown, who finished with 15 points on 7 og 9 shooting, the Panthers were able to extend their lead in the second half.
Northern Iowa was never able to get its 3-point shooters open, though, and was held to just 3 of 20 from behind the arc as a team.
Derek Culver led the Mountaineers with 15 rebounds and Jermaine Haley added 10 points.
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