Cover Photo – Ben Queen, USA Today
Morgantown, West Virginia – The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-8 overall, 2-6 in the Big 12 Conference) upset the #15 ranked Auburn Tigers behind a huge night from senior guard Erik Stevenson’s career-high 30 points. Here’s what head coach Bob Huggins had to say about the huge victory:
“We got Erik open today. I thought we did a great job of screening and getting him open and he made shots. When you have opportunities to step on people’s throats, you have to do that. And we didn’t do that. We didn’t play nearly as hard in the second half. We didn’t get the movement in the second half that we did in the first half. Maybe we were a little tired. I thought James (Okonkwo) played well. Keddy (Kedrian Johnson) is the engine that drives the train.
We’re getting better. You have to play these kind of games. We’ve had guys that have never played in these games.
Some of our guys are putting some real time in (in the gym). Jimmy (Bell) is working hard. James (Okonkwo) is going to be a real factor down the stretch.
We’ve got to learn that every time you step on the floor, you have to be ready to play. You can’t stand there and daydream. That’s typical of young teams.
I wanted to get Seth (Wilson) in the game more, but I was worried about needing him down the stretch if Erik (Stevenson) got in foul trouble, but Erik was playing too well to take out.
It’s hard to take Tre (Mitchell) out. He’s been our best player. But he wasn’t as bouncy as he usually is and had a bad day today.
I told the team that we could go win four in a row before we gave that game away against Oklahoma. Now we need to go win 4 out of 5!”
The Mountaineers are back in action on Tuesday, January 31st at 9:00 at #11 ranked TCU.
