Things weren’t pretty for West Virginia, but they were able to hold on and beat No. 25 Texas, 76-73 at the WVU Coliseum on Saturday night.
“A hard-fought victory, you know I think it was a buy-in for us defensively, some changes schematically was probably the key,” Eilert said. “Our guys did a heck of job the last couple of days and made those changes and locked in on it. Had a lot to do with coming out with a victory tonight.”
West Virginia forced a season-high 22 turnovers on the night, and despite a strong second half shooting, it was the ability to control the paint and win the rebounding advantage which made the difference.
“I didn’t realize we turned them over 22 times. That’s got to be the most all year by far, and it wasn’t pressure by any means. I
told those guys if we don’t get spread and take a different approach to not get so spread and have each other’s back, we can put as much ball pressure as possible if we pack it in a little bit,” Eilert said.
“They bought into it. Credit to our staff. Our staff really put together a good game plan in terms of implementing it on a short notice, and excellent job by them in owning the defensive end and locking in and selling it to our guys. Credit to them and credit to our guys for buying in and locking in on it.”
Part of the issue for the Mountaineers had been easy drives to the basket, and a high percentage of opposing teams’ points coming in the paint. Tonight, Texas scored 28 points in the paint.
“When you get to spread, and you get the wrong match up when you don’t have a true five out there, it becomes very hard to mitigate. So, we know in the game of basketball it’s always your game plan in trying to figure out what you’re going to live with,” Eilert said.
What WVU lived with was Max Abmas. Abmas, who came into the game second in the Big 12 in scoring, scored 17 points over the final 2:29, and had a game-high 32 points.
“That’s kind of the way we had to look at it. If we’re going to sure up the points in the paint, we’re going to have to live with something. Consequently, I know they got several of them late, but they hit nine threes on us, so there’s always a weakness in every scheme defensively,” Eilert said. “You know they shot the ball well and credit to one of the best pure shooters I’ve seen in the game, and there’s certainly a reason why he’s (Abmas) got to where he’s at with 5th in all-time three-point makes. He’s a pure shooter and a special player.”
