MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Seizing opportunities has been a problem for West Virginia over the last month.
The Mountaineers came close to letting another one go to waste Saturday against No. 15 Auburn in the final installment of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
West Virginia never trailed, but had to hold off a furious rally for an 80-77 victory, which wasn’t secured until the Tigers’ Wendell Green missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
“We needed it bad. Looking at our record, we needed every win we can get,” said WVU point guard Kedrian Johnson, who finished with seven points and six assists, but missed two free throws late that kept hope alive for the Tigers.
The Mountaineers (13-8) put together one of their better halves this season in building a 45-29 lead. Yet Auburn (16-5) shot better than 56 percent in the second half (18 for 32) and had the deficit in single digits for the final 11:10.
“I probably called too many ball screens in the first half,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “We did not execute our ball screen offense when they blitzed us. We did not do a great job again on those short rolls. We went to our post-up game more the second half.”
The Tigers squandered a chance to pull even at 68 when K.D. Johnson couldn’t finish off a conventional three-point play and missed a free throw with 3:59 left.
Stevenson’s sixth of his seven triples followed to put the Mountaineers in front by four with 3:38 remaining. Jaylin Williams accounted for the next three points to pull Auburn back to within one, though he split two free throws that could’ve tied the game at 71 with 2:17 remaining.
Stevenson answered with a 3 in the corner after receiving an inbounds pass from Kedrian Johnson and rising over Allen Flanigan, giving WVU a 74-70 lead with 2:03 remaining.
“It was just going in like it’s supposed to go in,” said Stevenson, who scored a career-high 31 points. “There’s not a whole lot of space that I get in a lot of games. It seems like the times I’m wide open, I miss, because I’m so surprised I’m wide open. I’ve not been in the dumps, but it’s been a long two, three weeks. I’ve been shooting the ball well in practice and having good mental days, but come game time they haven’t dropped. It’s really taken a toll on me. It’s my job to help the team. They’re allowing me to score and if I’m not scoring, it’s hurting the team. It’s really been hurting me.”
The Mountaineers held separate six-point leads moments later when James Okonkwo and Joe Toussaint each made two free throws, the latter of which made it 78-72 with 57 seconds left.
After generating a stop, Kedrian Johnson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 38 seconds on the clock, and Williams’ trey allowed Auburn to cut its deficit in half with 32 seconds.
Toussaint then had a pass stolen by K.D. Johnson, leading to Williams’ attempt at a tying triple, which missed and was rebounded by Kedrian Johnson. Johnson went 1 for 2 on the ensuing free throws and Auburn post player Johni Broome scored in the paint to trim the Mountaineers’ lead to two.
With a chance to seal the verdict, Stevenson made 1-of-2 free throws, and his miss was rebounded by Green, who raced up the court and got off a challenged triple over Toussaint that was off the mark as time expired.
WVU head coach Bob Huggins didn’t consider fouling to prevent Auburn from attempting a triple.
“Never crossed my mind,” Huggins said. “Why would I foul? Particularly with their athleticism, they make the first one and tip the second one back. I’d just assume let’s go to overtime. I don’t want to risk losing.”
After struggling in the opening minutes of Wednesday’s win at Texas Tech, West Virginia got off to a strong start against the Tigers.
An early 6-0 spurt featured baskets from Emmitt Matthews Jr., Stevenson and Tre Mitchell and enabled the Mountaineers to lead 10-3.
Stevenson made his first trey 7:15 into play to give WVU a 16-8 lead. Stevenson’s next 3 made it 23-12 just past the midway point of the half, and he connected from long range again 4:39 before halftime to up the Mountaineers’ advantage to 34-19.
On that shot, Stevenson had two defenders near him and had just got it off before the shot clock expired.
“I knew it was going to be one of those days when that went in,” Stevenson said.
Auburn narrowed the gap to trail 41-29 on Flanigan’s outback dunk, but Okonkwo accounted for the final four points of the half, including a conventional three-point play that allowed the Mountaineers to lead by 16 at the intermission.
WVU made 15-of-27 shots in the opening half, forced nine turnovers and had a 17-10 rebounding advantage.
But the Tigers, who shot 11 for 27 in the first half, pulled to within 50-41 on Broome’s bucket in the paint less than 4 minutes into the second half.
The Tigers trailed 57-50 when Green got to the basket, but he couldn’t finish a reverse layup, and Jimmy Bell Jr. produced a conventional three-point play on the other end to give the Mountaineers a 10-point lead.
Auburn ran off the next five points and trailed by five on Broome’s layup, but 3s from Stevenson and Toussaint allowed WVU to lead 66-58 with 8:25 to play.
The Tigers then scored seven straight points before Bell converted inside with 4:43 remaining to keep WVU in front.
Stevenson shot 10 for 17 and made 7-of-10 treys. He also added six rebounds, giving him 16 boards over the last two games.
“As he gleefully announced in the locker room after the game, his recruitment came down to Auburn and us, so he made the right choice,” Huggins said.
Bell finished with 15 points and seven rebounds and made 5-of-7 shots and all five of his free throws.
“My coaches said that to me before I came here that it seems like I’m better when I play against better bigs,” Bell said. “When I play somebody that’s considered better than me, I always get that edge and feeling. I need to do that every game and not just because a big is considered better than me and help this team win.”
WVU had made 19-of-20 free throws before misses down the stretch led to the Mountaineers finishing 21 for 25 at the charity stripe.
Toussaint added nine points in the win though he shot 2 for 9. Matthews scored six and Mitchell had only four, giving him seven points and three field goals over the last two games.
“Tre’s carried us from the beginning of the year and matured,” Huggins said. “He wasn’t as good today as he’s been, but it happens. Fortunately other people stepped up.”
The Tigers held a 21-13 second-half rebounding advantage to win the battle of the boards, 31-30.
Williams led four Auburn players with 18 points, while Broome scored all 15 of his points after halftime and had a team-high seven rebounds. Flanigan scored 13 in defeat, though only three came after halftime, and K.D. Johnson added 10, nine of which came in the second half.
West Virginia improved to 3-7 all-time in the SEC/Big 12 challenge,
“Maybe we have a feeling that our backs are against the wall a little bit,” Stevenson said. “It’s at that point in the year where if you win games, it really helps you. It doesn’t surprise me we’re beating ranked teams, because we should be a ranked team.“