MORGANTOWN — There was a story and then a behind-the-scenes story that came with West Virginia’s 74-59 exhibition victory Friday night against Akron at the WVU Coliseum.
Both sides involve WVU senior guard Taz Sherman, who scored 29 points on a variety of shots in the win.
“My play, I think I did OK,” said Sherman, who finished 10 of 14 shooting and 6 of 7 from the foul line. “I got to my spots. I got to the rim. That was one thing I wanted to do if I got switched onto a big was put pressure on the rim. I think I did that.”
When Sherman was on the floor playing “OK,” the Mountaineers built up as much as a 32 point lead with 14:54 remaining in the game.
For a while, Sherman was outscoring the Zips by himself, scoring on three 3-pointers, as well as a variety of mid-range shots, drives to the basket and step-back jumpers.
“Taz was really really good,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said.
That was the story. Behind the scenes was the fact Akron didn’t let up after falling behind by 32 points.
The Zips defense then held the Mountaineers to just six points over the next 11 minutes and change and got as close as 14 points in the final seconds of the game.
Akron and WVU both scored 35 points in the second half.
“Team-wise, we’ve got to finish the game,” said forward Isaiah Cottrell, who finished with eight points and four rebounds after getting in foul trouble early in the first half. “We were up by a lot and we just let up. We’ve got to finish plays.”
Sherman’s role during that stretch? Well, there wasn’t one, which may be the point.
He played just four minutes of the second half, having taken a seat on the bench with his 29 points in his pocket and watched the rest of the game from the sidelines, as Huggins took a look at some other players.
If there was any question at how important Sherman will be to WVU’s success this season, all one has to do is look at the team’s success when he was on the court and its struggles with Sherman on the bench.
“We were up 15 and then we went up by 32, so we had them outscored by 17 at that point and Taz was on the floor,” Huggins said. “Yeah, I think it does mean that.
“Sean (McNeil) struggled today, but he’s not going to have a whole lot of days like that. My thought in the beginning was if you get those two guys going, they can’t over help on anyone else and really stretch the defense. None of that to this point has really come to fruition.”
The Mountaineers shot 26 of 58 (44.4%) from the floor and connected on eight 3-pointers, but really struggled from the foul line (14 of 23).
WVU’s defense forced 20 turnovers and recorded 10 steals. Akron shot 20 of 50 (40%) for the game.
“We played well in spurts,” Huggins said. “The bad was we didn’t continue to play. We let up. I thought our defense early on was pretty good and then it wasn’t any good. I thought we rebounded well early and then we didn’t rebound at all.”
McNeil finished with 10 points, but was just 4 of 12 from the floor. Freshman guard Kobe Johnson added eight points and played 23 minutes. He was 4 of 7 shooting.
Notes
** WVU starting point guard Kedrian Johnson took a hand to the face that cut him above his eye and bloodied his nose. After going to the locker room, Johnson did come back to finish the game.
** WVU freshman guard Seth Wilson was not at the game due to the death of his father, Donovan Wilson.
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