West Virginia Catches Fire In Texas Tech’s Return to the Court

The Red Raiders fought back from a double-digit deficit to end the first half tied in Morgantown. They raced to a double-digit lead in the second half but West Virginia was sharper down the stretch and dominated the last several minutes of the game to escape at home 88-87. Texas Tech's Mac McClung dropped a season-high 30 points but missed a game-winner as the 10th ranked Red Raiders dropped to 1-8 all-time against the Mountaineers in Morgantown.

Miles McBride was unstoppable late for West Virginia hitting the shot to put the Mountaineers ahead and leading the team to shoot 10 of 10 to finish the game and come back from 12 down late in the second half. The Mountaineers turned the ball over more, only got one more rebound, and shot less than 60% from the three-point line and still scored 88 and won because they shot an incredible 12 of 19 from deep.

"We're more than halfway through the season," Beard said in the postgame. "It's time to start winning these games. I don't know what I can take away. What I can take away is we got out-toughed in portions of the first half. Then I thought we kind of out-toughed them in the second half of the first half. Now it comes down to the team that executes the ball the best. We didn't execute on defense down the stretch. You have to find a way to win the game when you score almost 90 points on the road."

McBride was the player of the game leading the Mountaineers with 24 points, six assists and seven rebounds, while Derek Culver had 10 points and nine rebounds. McClung scored a game-high 30 and added three assists and two steals. Terrence Shannon was the only other Red Raider in double-figures with 15 and added 8 rebounds.

Texas Tech will return to action against LSU at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in its final non-conference game of the regular season before hosting Oklahoma next Monday at the United Supermarkets Arena. The LSU matchup is part of the SEC / Big 12 Challenge that features a complete set of Big 12 games against SEC teams on Saturday.