MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (AP) – West Virginia coach Bob Huggins knew his team was capable of a forged shooting performance.
It took six for that to happen.
Miles McBride scored 20 points and the climbers in 11th place had a torrid first half to get an 87-71 victory over Richmond, 19th place, on Sunday.
West Virginia (5-1) scored 10 consecutive shots on an 18-1 streak overdue in the first era for a 52-30 half-time lead. The team fired 66% (23 out of 35) from the ground in the middle, making 6 of nine triple attempts.
This is not surprising to Huggins.
“Education was shot like that almost from the beginning,” Huggins said. “I don’t think it’s a query that looks hot. They were just normal.
In their previous game, the Mountaineers were behind eight numbers in halftime before going back to beat North Texas. But West Virginia made our decision from the beginning versus Richmond (4-1).
McBride made nine out of 11 placement attempts. He highlighted his intensity in the first half, when he scored 16, as a catalyst for his team’s escape performance.
“At the North Texas game, we had no intensity,” McBride said. “I think our intensity in the first part is what we want in every 40-minute game. I think if I can start and the others can feed I think we’re going to be hard to beat.
Taz Sherman added 15 issues and Sean McNeil and Oscar Tshiebwe scored 12 numbers for the Mountaineers.
West Virginia fired 58% off the ground, the first above 50% in 17 games. It is the most productive functionality of climbers since they shot 58% against TCU last January.
“They haven’t shot so well here in the last two seasons, ” said Richmond coach Chris Mooney. Passes that entered the post.
“If they shoot so well, they’ll be hard to beat. “
Richmond has had an eight-game winning streak since the end of last season. It was the Spiders’ longest streak since a nine-game streak in the 2010–11 season.
Tyler Burton had 14 problems and 10 rebounds, Nathan Cayo scored 14 problems and Blake Francis had 12 problems for Richmond.
The Mountaineers maintained speed at the beginning of the moment with a Derek Culver blast that crowned a 9-3 burst for their biggest lead, 63-33.
Burton scored 10 problems and Francis had seven in a 10-minute series in the second half when Richmond reduced the deficit to 76-60 with 5:22 by the end, but the spiders did not get any closer.
THE ROAD TO MEMORY
The last time Richmond arrived in Morgantown, Huggins was a Mountaineers player in 1976.
BIG PICTURE
Richmond: The Spiders arrived on an average of five double-digit players. Top scorer Grant Golden attempted only four shots and stood at nine points, six below his average. Jacob Gilyard finished with seven points, five below his average.
West Virginia: Mountaineers entered the game firing 40% from the field, 32% from 3 points. Against Richmond, it was 36 out of 62 from the field, 8 out of 14 (57%) from beyond the arch.
Following
Richmond Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.
West Virginia welcomes Iowa State in its first Big 12 on Friday night.
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