West Virginia will be desperate to return to the win column when it hosts No. 14 Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon in Big 12 play at Morgantown, W.Va.
A rough season continued for the Mountaineers (13-8, 2-6 Big 12) this past Monday night as they lost 81-77 at Baylor. West Virginia lost star guard Taz Sherman to a concussion when he got hit in the face and side of the head by an opponent’s arm while he was trying to move around a defender.
Sherman finished with a career-high 29 points, including six 3-pointers. His status for the Texas Tech game is uncertain.
“He’s in concussion protocol and nobody knows really,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said of Sherman in a Wednesday update. “There’s not anything we can say definitive.”
On Monday, the Mountaineers fell short despite a 16-1 run late in the first half to give them an eight-point lead.
Sean McNeil added 16 points for West Virginia, which is in the midst of a six-game losing streak for the first time since the end of the 2012-13 season.
Earlier in the streak, Huggins hinted changes to the rotation could loom. After the latest setback, though, Huggins acknowledged he was proud of his team, especially having to finish the contest without Sherman.
“We hung in there with our best player — if not the best player in the league — laying in the locker room with a concussion,” Huggins said of Sherman, who averages 18.9 points per game.
West Virginia played one of its best games of the season in the loss to Baylor, shooting a season-high 54.2 percent from the field and making 11 of 27 attempts from 3-point range. The 11 3-pointers were a season high.
Meanwhile, Texas Tech (17-5, 6-3) is coming off a 77-64 home win against No. 23 Texas on Tuesday night. Red Raiders coach Mark Adams won his matchup with Chris Beard, who was facing the Red Raiders for the first time since he left the school for the head-coaching job in Austin.
Kevin Obanor, who had 17 points with five 3-pointers against Texas, led the way to keep the Red Raiders unbeaten at home. Kevin McCullar scored 19 points, while Bryson Williams had 16 and Davion Warren 10.
The win over the Longhorns was not lost on Adams, who assumed his position when Beard left Lubbock.
“I’m relieved — I’m tired, but also so proud,” Adams said after the win. “Just appreciative of the way our players played; they showed a lot of heart. It was just such an awesome environment. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that.”
With the win, Texas Tech occupies third place in the league behind 10th-ranked Kansas and No. 8 ranked Baylor — two teams that have lost to Adams’ crew this season.
The Mountaineers and Red Raiders met two Saturdays ago in Lubbock, with Terrence Shannon’s 23 points pacing a 78-65 Tech win in a game that featured 50 fouls, 30 against the Mountaineers.
West Virginia will need to play a much cleaner game Saturday after turning the ball over 17 times in the first contest. Sherman led West Virginia with 21 points, while Obanor added 18 for Texas Tech.
–Field Level Media