It was another game of firsts for West Virginia, this time it being the first game with RaeQuan Battle and without Jesse Edwards.
Both things were evident early for the Mountaineers, but only one mattered in the end and that was Battle. In his first game back, Battle scored 29 points, but would miss a crucial free throw with less than 10 seconds remaining, allowing Radford’s DaQuan Smith to hit a mid-range jumper, giving Radford a one-point lead.
West Virginia had 1.5 seconds remaining, passing it over the half-court line, and Battle would get a look falling away and it came up well short as the Mountaineers lost 66-65, dropping their fourth game in five tries.
Early on, it seemed as though the shakeup would be a serious problem. West Virginia (4-7) had three new starters, and another who was only making his second start of the season. The lack of cohesion was evident on offense, as the Mountaineers struggled to put together good offense.
WVU didn’t make any of their 10 three-point attempts, abut were able to keep pace with Radford (10-4) due to Battle as well as Noah Farrakhan. The pair combined to score 22 of WVU’s 28 points in the opening 20 minutes, keeping up with the Highlanders. Despite them scoring 22, neither of them shot the ball particularly well. The pair went a combined 8 for 16 from the field, and the rest of the Mountaineers went 3 for 16 from the field.
West Virginia trailed 29-28 at the half, and Radford kept their foot on the gas early in the second half, scoring the first five points of the second half, and taking a 34-28 lead.
The Mountaineers would hang in, going cutting the deficit to one on a three-pointer from Battle, before taking their first lead of the second half with 12:11 to play on a three-pointer from Ofri Naveh.
Down the stretch for West Virginia, it would be the little things that hurt the Mountaineers. West Virginia struggled on the offensive end, making only two shots in the final 6:39 of the game, and continuing to struggle from the free throw line, like they did in the first half.
They missed two free throws early in the second half, and went 11 for 17 from the line. In addition, the shooting wasn’t much better for WVU, going 41 percent from the field and missing 17 three-pointers.
WVU took a five-point lead with 6:40 to play, with Farrakhan and Kriisa making back-to-back three-pointers, forcing a Radford timeout.
Out of the timeout, Chandler Turner hit a jumper to settle the Highlanders down, and then they were able to win the game, closing the final 56 seconds on a 5-0 run, with Smith scoring four of those points.
The absence of Edwards showed itself. Radford had 12 offensive rebounds, and 11 second chance points. West Virginia turned the ball over seven times, leading to 11 points from Radford.
Farrakhan reached double-digits for the second game in a row, scoring 16 points on 7 for 10 shooting.
The Mountaineers have now lost their seventh non-conference game of the season, and they have two more chances before they begin Big 12 play.
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