Magnificent Mountaineers
What a great week for the Magnificent Mountaineers from last week. It was hard not to re-use some of these athletes for this week’s article.
Kaden Prather built off his solid showing against Kansas State with 4 catches and 48 yards against the Longhorns. This included a 23-yard grab on the opening play of the game and another 19 yard catch in the 2nd quarter on a 2nd and 11 that put WVU inside Texas’s 10 yard line.
Malik Curry had down games against Elon and Marquette, going a combined 4 for 14 and 13 points with no assists and 5 turnovers. However, he returned to form against Clemson by scoring 9 points on 4 of 7 shooting to go along with 2 steals. Curry seems to be a great spark plug scorer off the bench for WVU, and his ability to finish in traffic continues to impress me. Despite the two down games, I’m still incredibly bullish on Curry moving forward.
Finally, Ceili McCabe continued setting records for WVU’s cross-country team. McCabe finished 3rd overall at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, which is the highest finish for a WVU cross country athlete in school history. WVU cross-country coach, Sean Cleary called McCabe’s performance “one of the all-time greatest moments in WVU sports history”. I’m excited to see how Ceili can build off this incredible year in her Senior year.
Without further ado, here is my list, in no particular order, of the top Mountaineers for the week ending November 21st.
- The Seniors (Football) – I know, I know. This isn’t an individual, but the Mountaineers group of senior had a great performance collectively against the Longhorns, and it wouldn’t be fair to single out just one. Here are the few that stuck out the most to me.
- Leddie Brown capped of his final game at Milan Pushkar Stadium with 33 carries for a whopping 158 yards and a touchdown. Leddie was the engine that powered the offense, and has been for almost two years now. He will be a tough man to replace.
- Josh Chandler-Semedo was all over the field on Saturday, finishing with 12 tackles, 0.5 sacks and 0.5 tackles for a loss. He has now played in 40 games for the old gold and blue, amassing a total of 243 tackles, with a Big 12 leading 96 tackles just this year.
- Dante Stills continued to live in the opposing teams’ backfield adding another 2 QB hurries and 1.5 tackles for a loss. Like Chandler-Semedo, Stills has played in more than 40 games as a Mountaineer. The West Virginia-native now has 42 tackles for a loss and 19 sacks in his career.
- Sean Mahone made arguably the biggest play on Saturday. Late in the 4th quarter on 4th and 8 from WVU’s 30 yard-line, Mahone picked off a Casey Thompson pass to effectively end any hope Texas had of tying the game. Mahone also finished the game with 6 tackles and one pass deflection.
- Gabe Osabuohien, Senior (Basketball) – WVU plays its best with Gabe on the floor. This is evidenced by performance of the team in the Clemson game compared to Marquette. Against Marquette, Osabuohien only played 17 minutes, dealing with foul trouble much of the night. Without Gabe on the floor, the Mountaineers defense looked lost and unorganized. However, against Clemson, Gabe was able to play 5 more minutes, and he was an important piece of WVUs comeback victory. He grabbed 7 rebounds and a steal on top of dishing out a team high 4 assists. As the season goes on, Gabe will need to be on the floor to help bring stability to a questionable WVU defense and bring the hustle and havoc that is characteristic of great Mountaineer basketball teams.
- Esmery Martinez, Junior (Basketball) – The WVU Women’s basketball season kicked off last week, and Esmery was front and center for the team’s 3 wins. She contributed nearly 15 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists per game on a ridiculous 68% from the field. She looks to continue building off a great sophomore season in which she averaged a double-double and was selected to First Team All-Big 12.
