West Virginia’s Second Half Rally Falls Brief in Loss to No. 6 Houston – West Virginia College Athletics

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s second half rally got here up brief in tonight’s 63-49 loss to sixth-ranked Houston on the WVU Coliseum.
 
The Cougars, winners of 13 straight video games, had a snug 39-19 halftime lead, however West Virginia scored the primary 11 factors of the second half and was trailing 49-44 with 6:59 remaining and Jonathan Powell on the free throw line to shoot a one-and-one. 
 
The freshman missed, sadly, and on the different finish of the ground LJ Cryer was fouled by Joseph Yesufu on his shot try that Toby Okani was known as for objective tending. Cryer made the free throw, pushing the lead again to eight, after which it shortly grew again to 11 on Milos Uzan’s second-chance 3 after J’Wan Roberts grabbed certainly one of his 4 offensive rebounds.
 
Subsequent missed free throws by Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris enabled Houston to get its lead again to fifteen.
 
“If you end up down 20 to a group like Houston, that is extremely tough to return again from,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries mentioned afterward.
 
WVU ended up outscoring Houston 30-24 within the second half after the Cougars had constructed up their massive first-half benefit.
 
“That second half was us,” DeVries mentioned. “It is the identical guys. No one has left the group, or we have added a brand new man, however once we’ve gained the video games, we have gained as a result of they performed at that stage. It is getting after it and taking part in as exhausting as you’ll be able to and disrupting on protection.
 
“As a coach, you hope we have got that again within the second half, however these previous few first halves, we’ve got come out not taking part in that approach,” DeVries added.
 
Because it has performed in its prior two losses to Arizona State and Kansas State, the Mountaineers dug themselves a 13-3 gap to start the sport. WVU noticed Arizona State an early 10-2 lead and got here out of the gate trailing 19-2 in final Saturday’s loss at Kansas State.
 
Houston (17-3, 9-0) bought 17 factors from West Virginia slayer Cryer, who’s now 6-0 towards the Mountaineers with 122 factors going again to his Baylor days. The senior guard made half of his 12 discipline objective makes an attempt and was three-for-three from the free throw line tonight.
 
Joseph Tugler contributed 12 factors and 7 rebounds whereas Uzan completed with 10.
 
J’Wan Roberts, who scored a game-high 22 factors the primary time these two groups met in Houston earlier this month, was held to only 5.
 
Yesufu was West Virginia’s main scorer with 9 factors.
 
Javon Small, the Huge 12’s main scorer coming into tonight’s sport averaging 19.6 factors per contest, was held to eight. He wasn’t capable of get off his first shot try till 11:07 remaining within the first half.
 
Okani and Hansberry additionally tallied eight for the Mountaineers, who drop to 13-7 total and 4-5 in Huge 12 play.
 
West Virginia’s struggles from 3-point distance continued tonight. WVU completed the sport making simply four-of-18 and has now missed 55 of its final 67 from behind the arc.
 
The Mountaineers additionally didn’t money in from the free throw line by misfiring on six of their 11 makes an attempt, three of these approaching entrance ends of one-and-ones within the second half once they had been making their comeback.
 
“We have now to hold our hat on the defensive finish,” DeVries mentioned. “That is the way in which we are able to rating and that is the way in which we are able to get out in transition. I am definitely pleased with our guys’ struggle within the second half. We had some alternatives to crawl again within the sport and will have had it down to 1 possession with a few free throws, however we at the very least gave ourselves an opportunity to convey it all the way down to the wire.”
 
Because it did the primary time these two groups performed, Houston managed the glass by out-rebounding West Virginia 34 to 19 – 13 of these on the offensive finish which led to a 16-to-three benefit in second-chance factors.
 
The Mountaineers return to the street to play at Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon. The Bearcats misplaced 69-66 at Utah on Tuesday evening.