West Virginia’s momentum from a big win over the weekend was put to a stop in their 72-59 loss to UCF on Tuesday night.
A big part of the loss was WVU’s offense which turned the ball over 11 times leading to 18 points for the Knights. Interim head coach Josh Eilert spoke on his team and the physicality of the game, RaeQuan Battle’s ejection and what the slow start did to the Mountaineers following the loss.
Physicality
UCF was able to defend West Virginia quite well for the majority of the game Tuesday. UCF out-rebounded WVU 45-34, while they also finished with seven blocks as a team.
“They’re right up there with anyone else in our league in terms of their physicality and the way they play and the way they’re locked in defensively,” Eilert said. “Their size and strength at every position, it makes it hard for guys going down hill. It’s a physical game out there and we didn’t create a lot of advantages. Told the guys prior to the game we got to do a better job of shot fakes and pump fakes. They got two really good erasers down there that we didn’t capitalize.”
RaeQuan Battle’s Ejection
Battle was issued two technical fouls in the second half and was therefore ejected from Tuesday’s contest, finishing with five points in the loss. Following the game, on WVU’s radio feed, Eilert explained his message to Battle, and postgame he expanded upon those comments.
“He got frustrated. They were putting a lot of pressure on him and doing everything they could. They did an excellent job of taking him away, but that’s going to happen in this league,” Eilert said. “He was frustrated in a lot of ways. He’s just got to take that frustration and realize he’s pulling a lot on defense and we got to get the ball moved and take care of it on the turn and get somebody else involved on offense.”
Slow Start
WVU called a timeout when they trailed 6-0 within the first two minutes of the game, before they were down by as many as 18 in the first half. UCF led by as many as 21 on the night, but the Mountaineers cut into the deficit late.
“We couldn’t get ay momentum. We tried to chip away here and there but some of these games you get down 10-plus you try to just grind them out of it one play at a time. Every time we did score it seemed like they had an answer which we didn’t convert on the other end,” Eilert said. “Regardless we battled there at the end and made it hard and that’s all I can ask for our guys.”
