MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia men’s basketball led by as many as 16 on Saturday night, but the Mountaineers went cold in the second half, as Texas Tech beat the Mountaineers, 81-70 at the WVU Coliseum.
It was as good a start as West Virginia could have asked for as their defense came to play early. A three-pointer from Kobe Johnson opened the scoring for West Virginia, while Texas Tech countered with a layup on the other end.
The Mountaineers then went on a 17-2 run from the 17:10 mark to the 12:04 mark of the first half, giving WVU a 20-4 lead. Kerr Kriisa scored seven of those 17 points during the run.
Trailing by 16 on the road seemed to not bother Texas Tech as they went on a 7-0 run. Former Mountaineer TJoe Toussaint made his return to the WVU Coliseum after spending one season with West Virginia and he seemed quite comfortable in his old stomping grounds.
Toussaint helped get the Red Raiders back into the game, scoring 12 points in the first half, on 5-for-10 shooting.
Texas Tech cut WVU’s lead to two with 6:25 to play as Toussiant made a layup and the Red Raiders were on an 8-0 run, with Toussaint scoring five of those points. A three-point barrage would follow, as WVU’s next four baskets, and two of Tech’s next three came from beyond the arc.
The Mountaineers got their lead back to 11, but it would go into halftime, at six, leading, 45-39.
Texas Tech carried that momentum from late in the first half right into the second, opening the half on a 13-5 run, as they went up by two in the early stages of the half. Tech’s lead would increase to five, as West Virginia scored the next six to go back in front, 57-56 with 11:53 to play.
In the first half, West Virginia was red hot from the field. WVU shot 62 percent from the field and from three, while Texas Tech shot 41 percent from the field and 38 percent from three.
In the second half that number would flip and in a major way.
Texas Tech seemingly couldn’t miss in the second half from three, as they went 7-for-15 from deep and made 57 percent of their shots from the field. Chance McMillian knocked down three three’s in the second half for the Red Raiders, and they continuously thwarted any chance WVU had at getting their lead back in the second half.
On the other hand, West Virginia simply went cold. The Mountaineers shot 39 percent from the field in the second half, and made only one of their nine three-point attempts.
WVU tied the game at 63-63 with 7:33 to play as Jesse Edwards caught a lob out of a WVU timeout. Texas Tech answered with a McMillian three-pointer, and eventually went on a 13-4 run over the final 6:17 as WVU had no answer on offense down the stretch. In total, Texas Tech outscored WVU 42-25 in the second half.
Toussaint finished the game with a game-high 21 points, while Edwards had 18 points to lead WVU.
