WVU gets the monkey off its back with win over Texas Tech

And that monkey on the back, which represented the weight of the losing streak that the Mountaineers had been carrying around?

Gone, too, as WVU overcame one of the ugliest starts in school history to beat the still winless-in-conference-play Red Raiders of Texas Tech, 76-61.

Not a black cat in sight as the Mountaineers celebrated the victory in a game that had more fouls and bruises than made baskets.

That’s right, they called 48 fouls and the teams combined for 40 baskets.

The bruises went uncounted, but not unfelt.

This was an unscripted experience for all. The only thing predictible about it was that it would be ugly as it matched up the bottom teams in the Big 12 Conference.

This was not a game plan drawn up on the locker-room whiteboard. The starters were so bad early that Huggins made a 5-for-5 swap and wound up finding heroes sitting there on the sideline with him. The bench scored 50 points; the starters 26.

Seth Wilson came on in that first desperation substitution and hit a couple of 3s and wound up with 15 points on five 3s, two of them banked. But then again, everything was a 3-point attempt for the Mountaineers, who attempted 35 3s and just 16 2s.

You see that about as often as you see a team be outscored in the paint, 34-10, and win the game.

But that’s just what happened.

Wilson provided a scoring outburst, as did guard Joe Toussaint, a bundle of energy who led WVU with 22 points, while James Okonkwo showed the skills Huggins had stressed he had for a couple of years as he skied for 10 rebounds to go with five points and a Sagaba Konate-like block that nearly brought the house down.

If the Game of Thrones had gotten off to the same kind of the start as did the game of basketball played by West Virginia on Wednesday night, there never would have been a second episode.

“We didn’t start very good,” Bob Huggins understated.

It seemed like it would end on a TKO called in favor of Texas Tech as West Virginia fell behind 10-2, completing more passes to spectators than to teammates.

The Mountaineers couldn’t shoot, couldn’t pass, couldn’t rebound and couldn’t believe what was happening to them, especially when Huggins had seen all he could take and, after a timeout, replaced all five starters.

It was like a hockey line change.

“Our starters just didn’t have any pop to them,” Huggins admitted. “They were dragging a little bit. “We went with some young guys who had a little more pop to them, and they responded well.”

As it worked out, Keddy Johnson had four points in 15 minutes, Eric Matthews had two in 11 minutes, Jimmy Bell Jr. had one in 16 minutes and Tre Mitchell had three in 20 minutes. That’s 10 points from four of the five starters.

Only Stevenson carried the weight, and while he made only 3 of 12 shots, 1 of 7 from 3, he put up 16 points with four assists on classic passes. Although there also were three passes that would have needed $15 postage each if he sent them via air mail.

There were injuries. Kedrian Johnson, whose been bounced around all season with ankle problems and a concussion, left early with an ankle injury. Emmitt Matthews Jr. was still feeling the effect of a knee problem he had a couple of weeks back.

And so Huggins put the game in the hands of his bench players.

Turned out, though, new blood was just what was needed, considering how much blood at been drawn by Texas Tech up to that point. The transfusion of life came in the form of forward James Okonkwo’s effort on the boards and Seth Wilson’s shooting.

By halftime Okonkwo had 6 rebounds to lead the Mountaineers, Wilson had six points and Joe Toussaint had come off the bench to add 8 and WVU led, 33-28.

As a work of art it was little more than a Kindergarten crayon drawing on the floor by the Mountaineers but on the scoreboard it was a Picasso, difficult to understand but nice to look at.

The second half turned into a whistle fest as the officials could barely keep up with the fouls being committed and could never match the ferocity of the fouls. There were nine fouls committed in the first 3:06 of the second half, and it didn’t slow down much from there.

Normally, this isn’t a WVU positive, but on this night they hit 28 of 35 for 80%, getting back to the kind of free throw shooting they displayed in preseason play.

WVU returns home for a big basketball weekend that includes the Bob Huggins Fish Fry with special guest Charles Barkley, then a Saturday meeting with Auburn in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.