In a game where there were 49 combined fouls, along with two technical fouls, the whistles were almost as loud as the 11,573 who came to watch No. 11 Iowa State face West Virginia.
West Virginia beat Iowa State 76-71 on Wednesday night in a game which saying it was physical would be underselling it. The Mountaineers and Cyclones combined to shoot 55 free throws. In the first 4:09 of the second half there were 12 combined fouls whistled, setting the tone for the rest of the game.
“Complaining about the refs is like complaining about the weather,” West Virginia forward Emmitt Matthews said.
Matthews scored 20 points on the night, while going 5 for 6 from the free throw line
“You’re going to get a game where you get a crew that they’re going to call fouls your way and you’re going to get a crew that calls fouls the other way,” Matthews said. “I just play basketball. That’s really all you can do, let everything else control itself. If they want to call a foul, they’re going to call it.”
West Virginia guard Kedrian Johnson was charged with three fouls against the Cyclones.
“I feel like when obvious fouls aren’t called, yeah it bothers us but you can’t dwell on it,” Johnson said. “It’s up to the refs to call a foul, not us.”
One of the two technical fouls given out was to WVU guard Joe Toussaint. Toussaint was scored a tough basket, and let the Iowa State defender hear about it. Toussaint thought would be assessed with a technical foul.
“Joe’s a New York guard. Joes’ going to be feisty, he’s going to have energy, if he gets a bucket, he’s going to let you know he gave you a bucket and if he gives you a bucket, it’s going to be a bucket, not a regular basket,” Matthews said. “Joes’s going to be Joe. I’m not going to try to change Joe. If Joe wants to score that layup or stick his tongue at the crowd or stick his tongue out at that guy, I’ll let him do it 100 out of 100 times.”
Matthews would add how he appreciates the fire head coach Bob Huggins shows on the sidelines. He said he knows he has his back.
“The one thing a lot of people don’t talk about when a coach is getting after it with the refs and almost getting a tech, is that just shows you how much he’s fighting for us,” Matthews said. “It gives you even more of a reason to fight for your guys.”
Matthews would be one of two Mountaineers to have to briefly leave the game due to injury. In the first half, Erik Stevenson would get called for a blocking foul and while on the ground, he appeared to make contact with Iowa State’s Gabe Kalscheur.
“I didn’t like the play that happened,” Matthews said of the Stevenson incident. “I think he got kicked in the head. I felt like there should’ve been something looked at there and what not. The whistles blown, he’s on the ground, gets kicked in the head. I find that dirty and that’s a little bit of motivation for me.”
