MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s latest travel apparently didn’t take the Mountaineers to the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
Instead, WVU apparently went to the NBA All-Star game, where Texas put on a dunk and 3-point shooting contest and got an MVP performance from forward Dylan Disu.
It all added up to a 94-58 blowout victory for the Longhorns, who won their first home game since Jan. 20, with Disu finishing with 27 points in a near-perfect shooting performance.
The 36-point loss was WVU’s largest ever in Big 12 play.
“They were the aggressor,” WVU head coach Josh Eilert said on his radio postgame show. “They were 100% the aggressor. They took it to us. It was a physical game. They understood that was probably the game plan and when they’re really physical with us, we struggle.”
WVU (8-15, 3-7 Big 12) lost its 11th consecutive game away from the WVU Coliseum, which dates back to last season. The Mountaineers have lost nine straight away from Morgantown under Eilert and have now lost four of their last five games overall.
This one was so bad that it literally turned into a season’s worth of highlights for Texas (16-8, 5-6) in just one game.
It began with Disu, who seemed to be unguardable in the first half, making all seven of his shots, including a perfect 5 of 5 from 3-point range.
“Credit to him, he was (5 for 5) from three to start the game and he knocked down shots,” Eilert said. “Once you see a couple go down, the floodgates can open for you.”
Disu had 19 of Texas’ 55 points at the break, the 55 points allowed being the most points scored against WVU in a first half this season.
Disu finished 10 of 16 from the floor and 7 of 10 from 3-point range.
One more Texas three came from Max Abmas from about 28 feet away. Abmas finished with 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds and passed Oscar Robertson for 12th on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list along the way.
Texas’ dunk display was just plain impressive, too, most of them coming off poor WVU turnovers.
Dillon Mitchell intercepted a pass from Kobe Johnson, got himself on a breakout and wind-milled one in.
Tyrese Hunter, who added 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds, stole another pass from Kerr Kriisa and took off from one step inside the foul line and dunked it.
Not to be outdone, Chendall Weaver used a backdoor cut, hauled in a bounce pass and got so high on his dunk that his face hit off the bottom of the backboard.
WVU did not respond. Instead, the Mountaineers turned the ball over 15 times, which led to 29 points for the Longhorns. WVU was also held to just 3 of 13 (23.1%) from behind the arc and tied a season-low with just six assists.
“That’s 29 points off turnovers and six assists to 15 turnovers,” Eilert said. “They had 28 assists to just five turnovers. Wow. That’s the game right there.”
Texas’ 28 assists were the most against the Mountaineers since Kansas racked up 29 in 2013.
Eilert finally waved the white flag with 5:21 remaining and played reserves the rest of the way, including Aden Tagaloa-Nelson, a safety from the football team who made his first basketball appearance.
The lone bright spot for WVU was center Jesse Edwards, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Noah Farrakhan came off the bench to add 11 points and eight rebounds.
It was the last time WVU will visit the Moody Center, with the Longhorns leaving for the SEC next season.
Good thing. WVU’s trip to the arena last season resulted in a 34-point loss.
“I really felt like it was déjà vu here looking at this box score and thinking about last year in this arena,” Eilert said. “Credit to them, they played a great game.”
