MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Coming into Saturday, West Virginia head coach said Kedrian Johnson was going to be the difference maker for the Mountaineers if they wanted to beat UAB and the nation’s leading scorer Jordan Walker.
Walker came into Saturday’s game averaging over 25 points per game and although Walker scored 19 points against West Virginia (8-1), the Mountaineers were led by their senior point guard Johnson, who scored 17 points of his own, while Johnson’s defensive efforts which helped fuel the Mountaineers to an 81-70 victory.
“You heard kind of all week of how the little guy (Walker) is in Birmingham and I kept saying, ‘he hasn’t seen Keddy yet,’” Huggins said of Johnson. “I’ve got a lot of confidence of what Keddy (Johnson) can do in terms of guarding the ball whoever it is.”
Johnson would lead West Virginia’s defensive effort, as the Mountaineers forced 19 turnovers, leading to 25 points in the win. Johnson would also draw seven fouls and make all seven of his free throw attempts.
UAB (7-2) would strike first, scoring within the first 10 seconds of the game, with Eric Gaines slamming home a dunk to put the Blazers up 2-0. The Mountaineers would respond with Bell putting through a dunk of his own.
Before Bell would put the ball through the basket however, West Virginia’s Emmitt Matthews would land awkwardly and leave the game less than a minute into the game. Matthews would later return at the 13:41 mark of the first half and would hit three three-pointers and score 11 points in the first half after re-entering.
“When it looked like they were about to make a run, he made big shots for us,” Huggins said of Matthews.
West Virginia would use a 9-0 run in the latter part of the second half, with Johnson scoring five of the nine points, as well as Matthews capping off the run with a dunk, putting West Virginia ahead 30-22 with 3:43 remaining in the first half.
UAB would get the lead down to five, but a late push by Joe Toussaint would give WVU a nine-point lead heading into halftime.
In the second half, the Mountaineers would lead by eight with 18:06 to play, before UAB went on a 10-0 run over a 2:43 span to lead 47-45 with 14:32 to play.
The Mountaineers would then make a point to try and get to the free throw line, going on a 6-0 run, with all six points coming on free throws, to put the Mountaineers ahead by four.
The trend would continue for West Virginia as they found the way to the free throw line 18 times in the second half and 25 times on the night, with the Mountaineers making 22 of those free throws.
“When it’s a close game, it all comes down to free throws, rebounding, and sometimes turnovers,” Johnson said. “We shoot 100 free throws at the end of practice every day, so I think that was a big part of our win today.”
With just under 11 minutes to play in the second half, UAB was trying to make a run. The Mountaineers had the ball leading by four, but Johnson turned it over to Walker.
Walker had a look at the basket in transition, but Joe Toussaint would block Walker’s shot, with Johnson leaping to keep it in bounds, before Mitchell hit a three-pointer on the offensive end to put West Virginia up seven and force a UAB timeout with 10:41 to play.
UAB would counter basket out of the timeout, but the Mountaineers would continue to put the pressure on the Blazers.
Bell scored on back-to-back trips for WVU, putting the Mountaineers up nine. UAB’s Davis would be able to cut the lead back to seven before Emmitt Matthews hit a three-pointer for the Mountaineers. Walker would respond with a three-pointer of his own, before West Virginia’s Mitchell was able to hit a jumper from the elbow, before making a pair of free throws on WVU’s next possession to put the Mountaineers ahead 69-58 with 7:16 to play.
From that point on it would be all Mountaineers down the stretch. West Virginia would hold off the Blazers, as UAB would not reach within 10 for the final 7:16 of the game.
“I thought for the most part that’s as well as we played defensively,” Huggins said of his team’s effort.
West Virginia had three scorers other than Johnson score at least 13 points. Matthews had 16 points, while Toussaint had 14 points, and Mitchell had 13 points.
The Mountaineers’ versatility helped carry them to a victory and that is something Huggins wants to continue to see from his group as they have two games left nutil Big 12 play.
“If we do what we’re supposed to do because we have enough guys who can make shots,” Huggins said. “I think we’re a hard team to guard and Erik (Stevenson) had a bad day today and usually it’s [Stevenson] that everybody worries about.”
Photo by Dale Sparks, All Pro Photography
