The Mountaineers will go back to the very beginning on Friday as they play St. John’s for the second time in the Big East-Big 12 Battle.
Since its inaugural season in 2019, West Virginia Men’s Basketball has competed in the annual Big East-Big 12 Battle. The series, though initially planned to end in 2022 after four seasons, received a two-year extension for this season and the next.
After 2019’s 8-2 victory for number of winning teams, each season brought a tie, with each conference having three winners and losers in 2020, five in 2021, and five in 2022. WVU is 2-2 in its four series games.
As the Mountaineers prepare to get revenge against their 2019 opponents, this is the Mountaineers’ full history in the Big East-Big 12 Battle.
2019: Mountaineers miss final shot to send game to overtime in MSG
WVU’s most recent matchup against the St. John’s Red Storm ended in a 70-68 loss in Madison Square Garden, which St. John’s shares with the NBA’s New York Knicks. The loss was West Virginia’s first of the season, dropping them to 7-1 overall while the Red Storm improved to 8-2.
The game was the Big East-Big 12 Battle’s third of the season and first of two on that Saturday. The game had 7,281 fans in attendance, giving it the second closest scoring margin and second lowest attendance of the 2019 series.
Entering halftime, the teams were tied at 36 points and featured WVU’s largest lead of the game at 13-8. In the second half, though, the Red Storm pulled ahead, slowly gaining a 10-point lead in the period’s first 10 minutes. West Virginia kept St. John’s’ scoring down for the remainder of the game when a Derek Culver layup began a nine-point run to tie it up for the Mountaineers.
In the game’s last 1:34, each team took just one shot before Culver fouled junior guard Rasheem Dunn, who made two free throws to give St. John’s the lead with five seconds remaining. Freshman and current Knicks point guard Miles McBride got a look at a mid-range jump shot as time expired, but it was off the mark, and the Red Storm won the third straight game for the Big East. Marquette would take down Kansas State that evening before Iowa State and Baylor broke the Big 12’s losing streak with the conference’s only two wins of the series.
This season, WVU will welcome St. John’s to the WVU Coliseum in their first game since. It tips off at 7 p.m. on Friday.
2020: West Virginia gives early series lead for Big 12
Due to COVID-19 related cancellations, WVU once again played the third contest of the Big East-Big 12 Battle but with better circumstances for the Mountaineers. Instead of being down 2-0, the Big 12 was tied so far in the series thanks to an Oklahoma State win over Marquette. Additionally, West Virginia did not come into this game with an undefeated record, but this time, they were ranked at No. 11, and instead of St. John’s, they took on their new opponents, the Georgetown Hoyas.
Georgetown led the Mountaineers 34-32 at halftime. They kept this lead for the first seven minutes of the second half as well, rallying to a 50-44 advantage with 13:33 remaining before Miles McBride made a three-pointer, almost immediately followed by an assist to Oscar Tshiebwe for a dunk. In the next minute, Tshiebwe had four free throw attempts and made three of them to gain the lead.
From there, the Hoyas and Mountaineers went back and forth with lead changes until WVU took a five-point lead with five minutes left that grew quickly to double-digits but ended with an 80-71 win after a Georgetown three-pointer with four seconds remaining.
McBride managed 17 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, and four steals, making him one of four Mountaineers in double-digit scoring in the win. He shot 5/9 from the field and 2/3 from long-distance.
The Big East-Big 12 Battle finished in a 3-3 tie. The Mountaineers finished the season 19-10 with an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Syracuse. Georgetown finished 13-13 with a 7-9 conference record but won the Big East Tournament before losing in the first round of March Madness against Colorado.
2021: Sherman scores fifth 20-piece of the season to lead upset of UConn
2021 featured WVU’s first home game of the Big East-Big 12 Battle, taking place against the No. 15 UConn Huskies. It was the sixth game of the series, which the Big 12 trailed 3-2.
Neither team shot particularly well in the game, as both made roughly 39% of their shots, but West Virginia shot 6/16 from three compared to UConn’s 3/21 shooting and got 15 more free throw attempts for six more makes, giving them an edge. The Mountaineers won the low-scoring game 56-53.
West Virginia was primarily led by two scorers in the game, as Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil combined for 39 points. Both played all 40 minutes of the contest.
For Sherman, his 23 points made for his fifth game with 20-plus of the season. Sherman also had six rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block in the win. He led the team in both field goal and three-point percentage, shooting 8/17 from the field and 3/6 from long-distance. McNeil, a junior, had his season high of 16 points in the game and grabbed three rebounds as well.
The Big East-Big 12 Battle once again ended in a tie, but WVU extended their then five game winning streak to eight before plummeting with back-to-back seven-game losing streak. The win over UConn stayed their best of the season, as the Huskies ended the season with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament and a No. 21 ranking.
2022: The Mountaineers fall back to an even record in another series tie in the challenge
After winning two years in a row, the 2022 Big East-Big 12 Battle brought West Virginia to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they lost to Xavier, 84-74. The game was the penultimate of the season’s series and brought a 5-4 lead in favor of the Big East, which ended tied for the third year in a row after an Iowa State home win over St. John’s.
Xavier entered the game 5-3 after three losses to ranked teams early in the season. The win over WVU was the second of an 11-game win streak that featured a victory over the No. 2 UConn Huskies. The Musketeers ended the season No. 13 in the Associated Press’ rankings and in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
West Virginia once again entered the game with a strong season showing, as they stood 6-1 before the loss, falling only to No. 24 Purdue. The Mountaineers went on a four game winning streak after the loss before nullifying it with five straight losses immediately afterwards. Nevertheless, WVU ended the season 19-15 with a place in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Mountaineers led Xavier 43-36 at halftime, but they dropped to just 31 points scored in the second half, allowing the Musketeers to heavily take advantage. Only Kobe Johnson shot better than 50% from the field for WVU, as he made his only shot of the game for two points, two rebounds, and two assists in 10 minutes. Xavier, meanwhile, had no issues knocking down shots.
Souley Boum shot 5/8 and 2/3 from three for 23 points to go along with seven assists and four rebounds. Shooting even more efficiently was Jack Nunge, as the 7 foot center made seven of his nine shots for 17 points, 14 rebounds, an assist, two steals, and two blocks. In the end, Xavier shot 28/52 compared to WVU’s 27/59 in the game, giving them the edge necessary for the big-time comeback.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
