Mountain State Times

Mountaineers Snap Big 12 Road Losing Skid at Texas Tech Wednesday Night

West Virginia used career-high scoring nights from Joe Toussaint and Seth Wilson off the bench to defeat Texas Tech 76-61 and snap its 12-game game Big 12 road losing streak Wednesday night at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas.
 
Toussaint led everyone with 22 while Wilson contributed 15 – all from behind the 3-point arc – as the Mountaineers boost their record to 12-8, 2-6.
 
The Red Raiders are still winless in conference play at 0-8 while their overall record is evened at 10-10.
 
The 3-ball and the free throw line were West Virginia's two big weapons tonight. The Mountaineers made 10 from behind the arc and scored 28 at the foul line in a foul-filled, poor shooting affair.
 
West Virginia shot 37.3% overall, 19 of 51, including 25 misses from 3-point range. Texas Tech shot 38.9% and missed 14 of their 20 triples. The two teams were called for 48 fouls and committed 34 turnovers, 19 of those coming from the winning team.
 
Texas Tech was assessed three technical fouls resulting in five free throws for West Virginia. Erik Stevenson shot all of them, making four, and he ended the night 9 of 11 from the line for 16 points.
 
West Virginia dominated the glass 44 to 27, and it was Jimmy Bell Jr.'s six offensive rebounds that got the Mountaineers a 33-28 halftime lead.
 
Texas Tech began the game with a 10-2 lead and Huggins immediately went to his bench with five new players, Kobe Johnson, Toussaint, Wilson, Mohamed Wague and freshman Josiah Harris.
 
"We didn't start out very well, but we got great help from our bench," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "Our starters just didn't have any pop to them. They're the guys who have played the majority of the minutes and they were dragging a little bit, so I thought we'd go with some young guys and guys who have a little bit more pop to them."
 
Tech's lead swelled to double digits before West Virginia began chipping away. Toussaint's step-back 3 pulled the Mountaineers to within four, 16-12, Wilson and Toussaint 3s narrowed the deficit to three and then momentum changed when Kerwin Walton was assessed a technical foul for slamming the ball to the ground after being called for a personal foul.
 
Stevenson got four free throws out of that and West Virginia had its first lead of the game, 22-21. A Kedrian Johnson 3 made it 25-23, and Tre Mitchell's 3 with 31 seconds left gave WVU a 33-28 advantage.
 
West Virginia had an opportunity to add more ahead of the first half horn, but Stevenson's long look from beyond the top of the key hit the back of the rim.
 
For the first 10 minutes of the second half, West Virginia's only two field goals were Wilson 3s, one a bank shot from straight away with 14:07 remaining. Fortunately, the Red Raiders were unable to make up much ground because of their shooting difficulties. 

Original source can be found here