WVU falls short against Texas, 61-54
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West Virginia (8-6, 0-2) dropped its second straight game as the Mountaineers fell to Texas (10-4, 2-0) by a score of 61-54 on the road Saturday night.
The Mountaineers trailed for most of the first half and the entire second half during the loss. Despite another strong second half effort and 13 second half points from James “Beetle” Bolden, West Virginia fell short and remains winless in conference play.
Freshman big man Derek Culver finished in double-digits for the third consecutive game and led West Virginia with 17 points. Texas’s Matt Coleman III finished with a team-leading 17 points.
Texas scored first to open things up with a layup from Coleman as West Virginia missed its first three shots from the field.
The Mountaineers got their first basket of the game with a jumper from Esa Ahmad and later took a 4-2 lead with a layup from Derek Culver. The two teams went back-and-forth before the Longhorns regained the lead at 11-9 with layups from Elijah Mitrou-Long and Jase Febres.
After a Texas free throw, a dunk from Andrew Gordon brought West Virginia within one point of the Longhorns but a 5-0 run from Texas extended their lead to 17-11 at the nine-minute mark in the first half.
West Virginia responded with a 5-0 run of its own with an Ahmad laup and three-pointer from Jordan McCabe which again cut the team’s deficit to one point.
McCabe sunk his second three-pointer of the game later on but West Virginia still trailed by three points. Free throws and back-and-forth scoring concluded the first half and Texas would take a 32-26 lead at halftime.
Culver led the Mountaineers with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting during the first half but West Virginia shot just 42 percent from the field to Texas’s 57 percent as the two teams each committed seven turnovers.
West Virginia cut its deficit down to four points with Gordon’s second basket of the game to start the second half which was followed by a layup from Kerwin Roach.
A jumper from Culver followed a free throw from Roach, but the Longhorns would extend their lead to eight points at 38-30 with a three-pointer from Dylan Osetkowski.
The Mountaineers would get a spark from Bolden as the junior scored six straight points to bring West Virginia to within two points. A free throw from Culver made it a one-point game in favor of Texas. The Longhorns answered back and would later take a 49-41 lead thanks to a 6-0 run.
West Virginia fought back were lifted by Bolden again who scored five straight points to make it 49-46 in favor of the Longhorns. The Mountaineers would close the gap more with a jump shot from Culver and two free throws from Bolden, making it a one-point game.
Texas would again extend its lead with a basket from Roach and West Virginia trailed by three points with a little over four minutes remaining.
An offensive rebound and layup from Culver later brought West Virginia within two points, but despite this, Texas would extend its lead back to four points with a dunk from Jaxson Hayes.
A layup from Ahmad brought West Virginia within two points again, but like they did throughout the game, the Longhorns responded and a three-pointer from Coleman gave Texas a 59-54 lead with just over a minute remaining.
From there, West Virginia was unable to rally back and lost its second straight game.
The Mountaineers will take on Kansas State on the road this Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.
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