MORGANTOWN — When shots are going in one after the other, it certainly brings with it a certain feeling of momentum.
West Virginia’s big run that sealed its 63-50 victory against Kent State on Sunday was done on the defensive end.
“When you’re on defense and you’re getting constant stops, it’s a different energy,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “When you can stop other good players from scoring consistently, that’s a different feeling. I feel like we do that often, where teams don’t score for three, five or seven minutes. That shows how locked in on defense we can be.”
The Mountaineers (9-1) locked in during a stretch in the second half that saw a three-point game turn into a no-brainer.
WVU led 40-37 with 11:46 remaining, but Kent State didn’t score again for nearly seven minutes.
The Golden Flashes were 0 for 7 from the field, turned the ball over three times and WVU forward Dimon Carrigan blocked a shot during that stretch.
“Definitely, we needed that today,” WVU guard Sean McNeil said. “It took us a little bit to get going. In the second half, we got the lead up to 17 after getting a couple of stops in a row.”
Kent State was held to just 34.5% shooting (19 of 55) and the 50 points allowed were the lowest of the season for the Mountaineers.
WVU is allowing just 52.2 points per game over its last four games.
Still struggling at the foul line
WVU followed up a 12 of 27 performance from the foul line against Connecticut by finishing 13 of 24 against Kent State.
WVU is shooting 89 of 142 from the line (62.7%) as a team, which is last in the Big 12 and ranked No. 343 out of 350 teams across the country.
“Since we’ve got the practice facility, they’re supposed to make 100 of them before they leave,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said in stressing how WVU coaches stress free throws. “Obviously there are guys sneaking out.”
For the first time this season, though, there were visible reactions from Sean McNeil and Taz Sherman, who combined to miss eight free throws against Kent State.
“I don’t think it’s mental,” Huggins continued. “I think they just don’t put the time in that we’ve put in the past.”
After the win against UConn, Sherman made a public promise that the Mountaineers would fix their free-throw woes.
He went 7 of 13 from the line Sunday.
“A lot,” Sherman said when asked how frustrated he was by the misses. “They all felt good coming out of my hands. I haven’t really missed that many free throws since I played in a triple-overtime game in junior college, where I shot 28. Missing six out of 28 isn’t that bad, but missing six out of 13, that’s terrible.”
News and notes
Sherman has now scored at least 21 points in six of the 10 games this season. He’s averaging a team-leading 21.8 points per game after finishing with 27 against Kent State.
“I wasn’t a big fan of how I played today,” he said. “The stats may say otherwise, but personally I wasn’t a big fan of how I played on the offensive end. I felt like I have to take care of the ball better. I took smarter shots, but I need to take better care of the ball and make my free throws.”
The Mountaineers finished with 10 assists on 22 baskets, but WVU had just one assist at halftime.
WVU finished with a 38-31 rebounding advantage. Jalen Bridges led the team with six.
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