No. 17/18 West Virginia's (19-8, 7-7) road woes continued as TCU (15-12, 6-8) upset the Mountaineers by a score of 67-60 in overtime Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth.
The Mountaineers have now dropped five straight games on the road with their last road win coming on Jan. 6 against Oklahoma State.
TCU got off to a 6-0 lead early on and led by a score of 9-4 over West Virginia by the 17:12 mark after a three-pointer from Desmond Bane.
The Mountaineers answered back and managed to cut their deficit down to a point with baskets from Derek Culver and Emmitt Matthews. TCU though responded with another three-pointer from Bane which extended the Horned Frogs’ lead to four points at 14-10.
West Virginia and TCU kept going back-and-forth and the Mountaineers would take their first lead of the game with a jump shot from Sean McNeil.
McNeil’s jumper began an 11-0 run for West Virginia that saw the Mountaineers take a 25-15 lead over the Horned Frogs. TCU was held scoreless for over six minutes, but Jaire Grayer ended the drought with a layup.
This layup began a 6-0 run for TCU and cut the West Virginia lead down to four points, but the Mountaineers built their lead back up to 10 points at 31-21 with a 6-0 run of their own.
The Horned Frogs would go on to trim their deficit down to just two points thanks to an 8-0 run to end the half which put the score at 31-29 in favor of West Virginia. The Mountaineers were held scoreless for the final 3:30 of the first half and missed five straight shots.
Halftime Stats:
West Virginia’s lead was gone less than two minutes into the second half as TCU took a 40-33 lead after a 7-0 run at the 15:41 mark.
A jump shot from Jordan McCabe ended TCU’s run and a pair of free throws from Taz Sherman trimmed the West Virginia deficit down to three points. But the Horned Frogs extended their lead to seven points with a jumper from R.J. Nembhard and two free throws from Grayer.
The Mountaineers tied the game up at 44-all thanks to a 7-0 run, but TCU responded with a 7-2 run and led by a score 51-46 after a three-pointer from Nembhard.
West Virginia had a chance to tie the game up at 51-51 after another jumper from McNeil and layup from McBride. McBride was fouled on the layup, but he missed the ensuing layup which kept the Mountaineers’ deficit at a point.
A jumper from Nembhard gave TCU a three-point lead with just under five minutes remaining and that was later answered with a layup from Culver with 2:39 to go, making it a one-point game in favor of the Horned Frogs.
Another layup from Culver gave West Virginia a one-point lead, but two free throws from Kevin Samuel put TCU ahead, 55-54 with 1:25 to go. On the next possession, Oscar Tshiebwe was fouled and made 1-of-2 shots at the line to tie the game up at 55.
The Mountaineers got the ball back and took a timeout with 26.3 seconds left. During their possession, Sherman missed a jumper and Desmond Bane made what would've been the game-winning layup for TCU, but he was called for an offensive foul.
This led to the game going into overtime with West Virginia and TCU tied at 55.
In overtime, it was TCU that took a 60-57 lead over the Mountaineers with 3:10 to go thanks to a three-pointer from Grayer and layup from Samuel. The Horned Frogs extended their lead to six points with a free throw from Edric Dennis and two free throws from Samuel.
Sherman cut West Virginia's deficit down to three points with a three-pointer, but the TCU lead went up to five points with another basket from Samuel.
From there, the Horned Frogs iced the game with free throws and completed the upset win over the Mountaineers.
West Virginia will have a quick turnaround and will face Texas on the road Monday at 7 p.m. ET.
Final Stats:
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @PatrickKotnik
•Like us on Facebook
