The West Virginia women’s basketball team beat Kansas State 77-70 on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas, for their first win i…
Logan girls basketball used a strong third quarter to put away visiting River View 42-27 Monday at Logan High.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — If there has been one consistent trend in the Neal Brown era of coaching at WVU, it has been the inability to get the offense going early in games, but Brown says this week when the Mountaineers travel to Iowa State, he's going to do some experimenting with travel plans to address that.
"We're going to change some things from a travel situation, right? Do I believe that's why we've started slow? Absolutely not," he said, adding, "but when it hasn't worked, you change.
"I laughed and told them we were going to bus rather than fly to Ames, maybe that's the reason. They didn't think that was too funny."
It may not be funny, but something has to be done.
"We're going to change some things in our routine, what we're doing Friday and what we're doing Saturday. We're going to switch up some things in our deal and we can change some things as coaches early in the game maybe to help us out," Brown said.
"We're going to exhaust everything possible. That's the goal, to start fast. Any time you are on the road you want to start fast to keep the crowd out of it."
The question is whether he has waited too long to address this as he is about to face Iowa State in Ames at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the 43rd game of his coaching career.
Slow starts have been mostly overlooked for WVU, but they go back to Brown's very first game, Aug. 31, 2019, against James Madison, the No. 2 FCS team. It was a game WVU would win, 20-13, but not the way you would like that occur against a lower division opponent.
How did that game start? Austin Kendall completed a pass to Kennedy McKoy for minus-3 yards and WVU has been trying to get ahead the sticks ever since.
The first series on three and out with a net no gain.
And so it's gone, as a breakdown of WVU's first-half play over the years shows.
Let's look at it throwing out the Eastern Kentucky, Long Island and Towson one-sided mismatches in which WVU outscored its opponents, 174-14, which throws the comparison of any stats out of whack if you are looking at them against facing their own class of competition.
In 2019, WVU was outscored in the first half of its games by 191-99 and in seven losses scored only two first-quarter touchdowns and just 17 points. In those seven losses they were outscored 143-41 in the first half.
In 2020, the COVID season in which they finished 6-4, WVU scored only two first quarter TDs in the four losses and were outscored in the first half, 71-33. And in their five wins, not counting Eastern Kentucky, all they could muster were three first quarter TDs and two field goals.
Last year, in seven losses, they scored only 31 first quarter points and only two touchdowns and one field goal in the last six of those defeats. WVU did figure things out offensively by halftime in its victories last year and wound up outscoring it losing opponents 105-59 in the first half of those games.
But this year's WVU has done almost nothing in the first quarter, kicking just one field goal against both Virginia Tech and Baylor and in their five losses to date they have been outscored 38-24 and scoring touchdowns in the first quarter of only two of their seven games other than Towson.
Put another way, in the last four years, WVU has scored either 0 or 3 points in 19 of their games. And, if you want to look at it as how many games WVU has scored 7 or fewer first quarter points, it comes to a remarkable 31 games.
The most mystifying part of it is that it hasn't been a lack of effort, especially this year.
"The only game I have an issue with how we played was the Texas Tech game," Brown said. "The Texas game, we didn't play well, but that was because we just didn't make plays. We had some drives and things like that.
"The game we weren't ready to play and didn't play the game in the right manner was the Texas Tech game. The thing is, how do we make our guys understand the standard is the standard is the standard. We have to play up to the standard, regardless of whether we're playing on the moon, in Ames, Iowa, or here in Morgantown West Virginia.
"The standard is the standard, regardless of who we play or where we play. You have to play the game in the correct manner. That's the focus."
And, Brown notes, it is important this week, because while Iowa State shows an 0-5 record in conference play, they have battled to the wire against highly ranked teams all season.
"This is going to be a four-quarter game that will be extremely physical and will go into the fourth quarter. When it becomes winning time, we have to make those winning type plays we haven't been making."
HUNTINGTON — The Highlanders did anything they wanted to do.
Best Virginia overcome a sluggish start, including a 33% shooting mark from the field in the first half, to defeat Virginia Dream 75-45 in the first round of TBT 2022 in on Sunday.
The team comprised of mostly West Virginia University alumni came to life in the third quarter, outscoring Virginia Dream 25-6 to turn a 33-28 halftime lead into a 58-34 rout and making the final quarter and the Elam Ending nothing more than a formality. Leading 67-41, Best Virginia used a John Flowers 3-pointer, lay-ups from Kevin Jones and Juwan Staten and a Staten free throw to reach the target score of 75.
Best Virginia trailed through much of the first quarter and did not take its first lead until the 2:27 mark of the opening quarter, when Jermaine Haley capped a pair of transition buckets for the home team to put them ahead 11-10. Virginia Dream immediately responded with three points to go back on top at 13-11, but Best Virginia closed the quarter with five consecutive points to take a 16-13 lead.
Jamel Morris CASHES IN on a 👌 to end Q1!! Tune in now on ESPN2 & @Sling ‼️ pic.twitter.com/6jjNeQ9t7o — TBT (@thetournament) July 24, 2022
In the second quarter, it was new WVU Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Jones who took center stage. The Mountaineer legend hit a 3-pointer, a jumper and a free throw to give Best Virginia a bit of breathing room at 22-16, but over the remainder of the period his team continued to struggle, finishing just 1 of 6 from 3-point range in the quarter.
As the third quarter unfolded, though, Best Virginia’s superior depth began to assert itself. Right out of the locker room, it ran off 10 consecutive points, and although Virginia Dream tried to stem the tide with a timeout, nothing helped. Best Virginia pushed its lead out to as many as 31 points in the final quarter and cruised home for the win in front of a supportive home crowd.
Jones had 18 points and eight rebounds to lead BV in both categories. Jamel Morris and Jermaine Haley had 11 points apiece, and John Flowers had 10 to join the trio in double figures. Devin Ebanks also had eight boards.
Virginia Dream, which scored just 17 points in the second half, was led by Ed Polite with 11.
Best Virginia moves on to the round of 32 to face Herd That, which defeated Founding Fathers 77-71 on Sunday afternoon. The teams will meet at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Coliseum and Convention Center, with the contest streamed on ESPN3.
On the opposite side of the West Virginia Regional bracket, Bucketneers and War Ready, winners of contests on Sunday afternoon, will square off at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Watch the Game Highlights from Best Virginia vs. Virginia Dream, 07/24/2022 pic.twitter.com/XvJpFRW6Z2 — TBT (@thetournament) July 25, 2022
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The seventh-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers held the 10th-seeded TCU Horned Frogs to 11 first-half points and advanced in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, 68-48, at Municipal Auditorium.
Madisen Smith made four 3-pointers en route to a 19-point night for Mike Carey’s team, also passing out five assists.
JJ Quinerly added 16 points, seven rebounds and four steals, while Jayla Hemingway and Esmery Martinez put in nine points apiece.
Okako Adika scored 17 points and Lauren Heard 14 for TCU, but only four other players found the scoresheet.
WVU held TCU to 1-of-9 shooting in the first quarter and 2-for-13 in the second quarter, including misses on all nine Horned Frog 3-point attempts.
The Mountaineers also forced 24 turnovers.
WVU was up 17-5 after one quarter and 34-11 at the half and led by as many as 27 with 8:49 left in the third quarter.
It was a 51-29 game heading to the fourth.
West Virginia faces No. 2 seed Iowa State at 6 p.m. on Friday.
