Mountaineers Crush Spiders in Top 20 Showdown

For the second time in three days, the West Virginia Mountaineers notched a win. Today’s 87-71 win over No. 19 Richmond was the team’s first win over a ranked team this season.

The Mountaineers got on the board quickly working a little high-low action with Derek Culver at the free-throw line feeding guard Miles McBride who was posted underneath for the easy two. Richmond kept pace offensively utilizing great ball movement, spacing, and attacking West Virginia’s weakness of guarding the backdoor cut.

West Virginia got off to a rare hot start from beyond the arc with a pair of three’s from Jordan McCabe off the bench and one coming from Sean McNeil in front of the Richmond bench. Up 23-16, the Mountaineers got a little careless by giving up a drive to the bucket for two from Blake Francis and then turned it over on the ensuing inbound with a steal from Jacob Gilyard. Souleymane Koureissi was fouled by Tshiebwe and nailed a pair of free throws to cut the lead to three.

Taz Sherman kickstarted a 7-0 West Virginia run with a mid-range jumper and a three-pointer, but it was Miles McBride who really carried the hot hand racking up seven points in just 58 seconds. Shortly after that run ended, West Virginia turned it up a notch going on an 18-4 run. Taz Sherman picked off a pass and lobbed one up for Tshiebwe to slam it home. Eleven seconds later, McBride recorded a steal near midcourt and flushed home a thunderous dunk to go up 50-28. Richmond’s Tyler Burton rolled in a last-second basket to make it a 52-30 game at the half.

By halftime, McBride had 16 points on 7/8 shooting and 2/2 from deep. 

West Virginia continued to dominate in the 2nd half and with a 27-point lead, head coach Bob Huggins elected to throw in younger guys like Jalen Bridges, Isaiah Cottrell, and Kedrian Johnson to give them some additional playing time. With the Mountaineers being unable to have a secret scrimmage, an exhibition, and a gold-blue game, minutes for those guys have been sparse. Those three combined for four points and shot just 2/6 from the field.

The Spiders cut into the lead to bring it down to 18, so Huggins went back to his starting lineup to put the final dagger in Richmond. Taz Sherman also added eight more points to his total in the 2nd half and finished the game with 15.

West Virginia cruised to victory and made a statement against Richmond Sunday afternoon. Expect to see them make a leap into the top 10 come Monday. 

The Mountaineers will be back in action this Friday as they will begin Big 12 Conference play at home against Iowa State. Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. EST. 

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