Strong second half leads No. 14 West Virginia to a rout of Missouri

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — West Virginia already had the game won. Just three minutes and change were on the clock Saturday when Miles McBride saw the ball pop loose in a scrum near midcourt.

He could have simply remained an innocent bystander in what was already a second half dominated by the 14th-ranked Mountaineers in a 74-51 victory over Missouri in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in front of an announced attendance of 14,031 inside the WVU Coliseum.

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Standing by is not in McBride’s DNA, though, as he dove across the floor and came up with the ball. The freshman then drove down the floor for a lay-up and then nearly came up with a steal when the Tigers inbounded the ball seconds later.

“We’ve talked all year about being the hardest-playing team for 40 minutes,” said McBride, who poured in 15 points in the win. “The game wasn’t over with. We’re still going to attack teams in the last five minutes as hard as we did in the first five. That’s one thing we want our reputation to be. We want teams to know it’s not going to be easy coming in here.”

Oscar Tshiebwe had the ultimate late-game hustle highlight on Monday against Texas, when he chased down a loose ball at the other end of the court and turned it into a dunk when the Mountaineers were already up 41 points.

“I don’t think anyone would have blamed those guys for not going after the ball in those situations,” said WVU guard Jermaine Haley, who also added 15 points against Missouri. “That’s the kind of attitude we want to have.”

In the last two games, WVU has had all of it. Since falling on the road against Kansas State on Jan. 18, the Mountaineers (16-3, 4-2 Big 12) have knocked off Texas and Missouri by a combined 63 points.

“In the second half, they turned up the heat,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. “They did a great job of attacking downhill and putting pressure on our defense.”

What was a ho-hum 24-23 lead at the half for the Mountaineers quickly turned into a blowout by stepping on the gas and not letting up.

“We had trouble with that earlier in the season,” Haley said. “We would start to get comfortable and not play as hard.”

Bob Huggins, who tied Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp for seventh place on the all-time Division I list with his 876th career win, walked into the locker room telling his players he barely recognized them from their first-half
performance.

“We knew we had to go out there and play harder,” said WVU forward Gabe Osabuohien, who had 12 of the Mountaineers’ 50 rebounds. “He didn’t even really have to say that to us. We were already talking about it before he came in.”

Then came the defensive pressure. The hustle. The heart.

By the time the game was 13 minutes old in the second half, Missouri (9-10, 1-5 SEC) still had just 10 baskets.

By the time it was over, Missouri was held to 28.3% shooting for the game, the lowest of the season against the Mountaineers.

“Three hour practices, you get competitive during that,” McBride said. “When practices are harder than the games, everybody is going to want to go after the ball and everybody is going to want to make the right play. I think that’s what motivates us to go out there and keep playing hard no matter what the score is.”

WVU improved to 2-5 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge and freshman Oscar Tshiebwe joined Haley and McBride in double figures with 14 points.

Derek Culver added 11 rebounds, but was held to just four points and was 0 for 6 from the foul line.

Taz Sherman came off the bench to add nine points.

Missouri was led by Torrence Watson’s 19 points.