Huff’s 23 Paces West Virginia Towards Campbell

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used 23 factors from senior guard Honor Huff to outlast Campbell 73-65 on Thursday night time at Hope Coliseum.

Huff was one among 5 Mountaineer gamers to achieve double figures.

Brenen Lorient, Harlan Obioha and Treysen Eaglestaff every scored 12, whereas freshman ahead DJ Thomas contributed 10.

Campbell, which misplaced at 24^th-ranked Wisconsin earlier this week, used the free throw line to maintain it in tonight’s recreation. The Camels made 25 of 32 from the charity stripe to compensate for a 35.2% taking pictures efficiency from the sphere that noticed it join on simply 19 of its 54 discipline objective makes an attempt.

“I thought we defended well but statistically we just fouled too much, and that’s what they do,” West Virginia coach Ross Hodge mentioned afterward. “They drive the ball with physicality, and we needed to play just a little bit better without the fouls. If you look at their percentages … 35% from 2 and 14% from 3, only had five assists and 12 turnovers … we just fouled them too much and couldn’t come up with defensive rebounds when we really needed them.”

West Virginia led by eight at halftime earlier than Campbell began the second half by scoring 11 of the sport’s subsequent 15 factors throughout a five-minute span, decreasing the Mountaineers’ result in one, 37-36.

It remained a one- or two-possession recreation till a Huff 3 with 5:06 remaining gave West Virginia an eight-point, 57-49 benefit. Another Huff 3, this one from the nook with him falling out of bounds, saved the margin at eight, 64-56, with 2:17 to go.

But 11 seconds later, Jeremiah Johnson answered with two free throws, after which DJ Smith added a basket with 1:31 left to trim WVU’s result in 4, 64-60.

Following a West Virginia timeout, Lorient used a pleasant Obioha display on the high of the important thing to get to the rim for a one-handed slam dunk with 1:14 left to place the Mountaineers forward by six.

“You create just enough confusion with (Lorient) and Jasper (Floyd) up top, you have Honor at the corner and obviously people don’t want to (leave Huff open) and then you have a mountain of a man bucking in at the rim and fortunately for us B-Lo made that one,” Hodge mentioned of his play name whereas referencing a missed dunk Lorient had earlier within the recreation.

Lorient then added two extra free throws to safe the victory, West Virginia’s second in three days.

Lorient’s stat line included 9 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists whereas lacking one other double-double by only one board.

Huff’s game-leading 21 factors got here on 5 of 10 from the ground, 4 of 9 from 3-point distance and 9 of 10 from the free throw line.

“I saw that Wisconsin film and that was this game until the last three minutes and (Campbell) kind of let go of the rope a little bit in that one and it got away from them,” Hodge mentioned. “They had our full respect and that’s what we anticipated.”

Overall, the Mountaineers had been higher on the free throw line tonight than they had been two nights in the past towards Mount St. Mary’s, connecting on 74.1% of their 27 makes an attempt, however the rebounding continues to be a problem.

Tonight, Campbell out-boarded West Virginia on the glass 40 to 36, 15 of these coming from 6-foot-7 junior ahead Chris Fields Jr.

Dovydas Butka led the Camels with 14 factors.

“I wished we could have rebounded the ball a little better, but you’ve got to give them credit, they are big and physical,” Hodge mentioned. “Two of our better rebounders are in street clothes; that’s a reason, not an excuse.”

West Virginia (2-0) returns to the courtroom this Sunday to face Lehigh in a 3 p.m. recreation at Hope Coliseum. The Leopards opened the season with a 75-57 loss at second-ranked Houston earlier than defeating Valley Forge 91-52 earlier tonight.