West Virginia fell to Ohio State, 78-75 on Saturday in Cleveland. This game was WVU’s final non-conference game of the season, and interim head coach Josh Eilert talked about the loss and gave his thoughts on it.
Falling Just Short Again
West Virginia lost their third one possession game of the season and their fourth game by two possessions or less out of their eight losses to start 2023.
“These guys have an incredible out of resilience, a lot of fight. By no means, our staff, and the mantra within our program, are we ever going to quit or lay it down. We’re going to battle each and every possession and hopefully things start to fall our direction. Especially down the stretch, they didn’t really all our direction in any way,” Eilert said.
Overcoming Bad Start
West Virginia had a rough start to the game, as Ohio State led by as many as 14 in the first half. Eilert and his group were able to overcome the slow start and they did so without RaeQuan Battle.
Battle picked up two fouls in the opening eight minutes of the game, before ultimately finishing with 24 points, which led the Mountaineers.
“We turned the ball over and were sloppy and couldn’t rebound. Changed the defense on them and made it a back-and-forth battle,” Eilert said.
Rebounding was something that led to that for the Mountaineers. WVU was getting dominated on the boards early, but the final rebound total favored Ohio State 47-46. WVU out-rebounded Ohio State 27-20 during the second half and overtime.
“I challenged them man to man, I challenged them. Not only that, I think for whatever reason, I think we rebounded it a lot better out of the zone than we did out the man to man and that had something to do with it,” Eilert said. “I certainly challenged them midway through that first half and the way that game was going, the way they were rebounding it, we weren’t going to have a chance to win.”
Pat Suemnick Career High
Pat Suemnick scored the final four points of regulation, helping the Mountaineers force overtime. He would finish with a career-high nine points as well as five rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench.
“That’s one of the best things Pat does is set really good, hard, screens. With the way we play and the guards that we have going downhill, that’s a key strength of his. I kept on saying at halftime, go set a good screen, guard wait for it, and it’s going to create an advantage for us,” Eilert said. “He gave us excellent minutes. That’s kind of the role I saw him playing and hopefully we can build on that for him.”
