West Virginia started hot but ended cold, as they lost to Texas Tech 81-70 on Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
Josh Eilert spoke on his teams loss following the game and what went wrong in the second half.
By The Numbers
Eilert pointed to the fact Texas Tech put up 16 more shots than the Mountaineers, as one of the main reasons WVU lost. Add in, WVU also losing the turnvoer battle, and it’s a recipe for a loss.
“Credit to Texas Tech coming in here, especially in that second half, coming out with the fire and tenacity to grind out this game. It was quite the turn of events from us going up 16 that first half to be down 13 there late,” Eilert said. “We kind of did the same thing to Kansas State and had a 29-point turnaround last week. Credit to them. They made shots and they’re a good basketball team, but we got to do a better job.”
Hot Start
WVU opened a 20-4 lead, but it didn’t get them anywhere as Tech quickly closed the gap and then they took the lead early on in the second half.
“We made some really tough shots early. I wouldn’t say they were good clean looks but sometimes it’s a little bit fool’s gold when you make tough shots early. So, you kind of get a confidence that is kind of a false confidence, so to speak. You worry about that as a coach when hard shots are falling early and you get a lead, maybe you get a little bit comfortable,” Eilert said.
WVU shot 62 percent from the field and from three in the first half, but shot 39 percent from the field and went 1-for-9 from three in the second half.
“They battled back, and you know burned through every timeout early trying to shut those runs down, those many runs. We just couldn’t get into a groove defensively, we certainly struggled with that ran ball screen and trying to weaken at the top,” Eilert said. “So, they were getting a lot of really good looks out of it but credit to them, they knocked them down. But, we got to be able to understand the value of possessions better, we got to do a much better job with you know playing the lead.”
Edwards Battles Back
Jesse Edwards struggled against Kansas State, but he came back tonight and had 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
EIlert said they wanted to get Edwrds the ball more late, but because of the deficit and his free throw shooting struggles, it was hard to do so.
“When you play the numbers game, if he touches the ball there late, they are going to foul,” Eilert said. “It hurts that he’s struggling with that wrist and that tape and not being able to knock things down because I’d love to go more, especially
when you’re trying to stop the bleeding on these runs.”
