West Virginia lawmakers have fresh evidence that historically deep Medicaid cuts approved by Congress — including West Virginia’s four-member …
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HUNTINGTON — Tuesday evening in the Cam Henderson Center was a night more than a decade in the making.
Teams from across the sports world, as well as basketball players and coaches at various levels, reacted on social media to the passing on Wed…
Sport
Teams from across the sports world, as well as basketball players and coaches at various levels, reacted on social media to the passing Wednes…
The SEC/Big 12 Challenge will come to a close after this season, ESPN announced Monday.
MARIBETH HENSON, 65, of Bono, Arkansas, formerly of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, West Virginia, passed away on August 15, 2022.
LON JOSEPH HARDIN, age 88, passed away peacefully on June 9, 2022, at the Arthur B. Hodges Center in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, WV.
HARRY LEE JOHNSTON JR., age 71, of Stafford, VA passed away peacefully at Stafford Hospital Center on Monday night, January 24, 2022 after a t…
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — West Virginia's losing ways continued on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as they were unable to crawl out of the 19-point hole they dug themselves into with a first half that was embarrassingly bad.
They did manage to save face — though not the game — with a second-half rally behind point guard Keedy Johnson, who scored 18 points while hitting four of five 3-point shots, but in the end they ran out of gas and fell, 77-68.
The rally pared the Razorbacks' lead down to five points at 54-49 with 12:21 to go but whatever energy it took to work their way into the game could not be regenerated when it came time to win the game.
"I'm proud of them," coach Bob Huggins surprisingly sad after his team's fifth consecutive loss. "We're down 19 points at their place and we competed. We had a chance. We didn't score on a couple of possessions that I thought we had a chance to score and get it closer.
"You cut it from 19 to 5, but we were out of gas. You're asking guys to run around and trap and double team and one end and then turn around and say get through these screens and get open and make a shot."
Of course, you shouldn't be in that situation at all but this is a goofy Mountaineer team that finds ways to get itself into trouble often coming out of the locker room either to start the game or at halftime.
It has never established a personality and therefore it is what it is on that given day.
This day it was a team that couldn't shot, couldn't rebound and that couldn't stop Arkansas down low.
At 11:44 of the first half the Mountaineers had allowed Arkansas to double their score at 22-11, much of their work done in the paint. In fact, for the game, Arkansas would score 36 points in the paint.
Part of the reason was they dominated the glass, 44-26, leaving Huggins wondering how he could possibly fix the fact that his big men don't rebound the ball well.
"I went to our bench of bigs and told them, if you not going to try to rebound I can't play you. That's what happened today. D.C. got tired and we didn't have a sub," he said.
D.C. is Dimon Carrigan, who was the only big who gave Huggins a solid game. It might have helped had Gabe Osabuohien repeated his game from the previous one, but he wound up fouling out after playing just 13 minutes.
"We made a heck of a run in the second half. It's hard when Gabe fouls out of every game," Huggins said.
That was not a criticism of the officiating, which he said was the most fairly game of the year, but a criticism of Osabuohien's inability to control his fouling tendencies.
Osabuohien had a lot of company committing fouls in this one as WVU was charged with 29 of them, allowing Arkansas to make 28 of 34 free throws, 13 more than WVU.
So there was no rebounding and a parade to the foul line.
Early in the year WVU's big men were holding their own, but Huggins that was against mid-majors they could overpower.
"We can't overpower them at our level," he said. "Then Gabe fouls out again and that kills everything.. He's the guy who can keep balls alive, who can rebound the ball, but he's also the guy who slaps at every ball and fouls out.
"We need Gabe on the floor. We count on having Gabe on the floor."
He also needs Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil to score but teams are ganging up on them, playing in your face defense with big defenders.
Sherman got 15 points, McNeil 7. Sherman made 4 of 11 shots, 2 of 5 from 3 while McNeil hit 3 of 11 shots, 1 of 6 from 3.
"We're trying to screen to get them open," Huggins said.
But it isn't working.
In the end, Keedy Johnson — the team's best on-ball defender — had to become the top offender, too, and finished with as high scorer.
"He was the MVP of the game to me," Huggins said. "I can't find fault with him. He attacked the rim. He made shots and before he wasn't making any. I gave all of them the dickens for not being in the gym. He obviously has been in the gym and worked at it."
"I just wanted to win," he said of the performance. "I had the will to win and did whatever it takes."
But in the end, it was all Arkansas down the stretch as Stanley Williams had a double-double with 12 points and 15 boards, Au'Diese Toney, a former Pitt player, had 19 and 7, J.D. Notae, the SEC leading scorer, had 15 despite foul trouble, and Jaylen Umube had 12 and 8.
