GRANVILLE — West Virginia’s 13-3 loss towards No. 6 Oklahoma State could possibly be spelled out with only one letter: Ok.
Oklahoma State pitcher Bryce Osmond handed the Mountaineers their firs
You’ve gotten reached content material obtainable solely to Dominion Publish subscribers
Subscribe at the moment and obtain 3 months of premium entry for under $7!
Subscribe Now or sign up to learn the remainder of this content material.
Game Preview: UCF vs. West Virginia men’s basketball
West Virginia has their regular season finale as they host UCF on Saturday from the WVU Coliseum.
WVSports.com offers a look at some key elements of the match-up to get you ready for tip-off.
SERIES: West Virginia leads 2-1
LAST MEETING: Feb. 20, 2024 in Morgantown — WVU 77, UCF 67
TELEVISION: ESPN+ (Pete Sousa / Sean Harrington)
TIP-OFF: 5:00 p.m. ET
COACHES
Darian DeVries, West Virginia
18-12 (1st season at WVU), 168-67 (7th season overall)
Johnny Dawkins, UCF
164-118 (9th season at UCF), 320-232 (17th season overall)
LAST TIME OUT
UCF enters the game off an 83-70 victory over Oklahoma State this week. The Knights had their largest margin of victory in a game since Jan. 25. Darius Johnson scored 36 points while Keyshawn Hall scored 18 points. UCF shot 41 percent from the field and knocked down 10 3-pointers.
West Virginia enters Saturday off a 71-69 win over Utah on the road this week. Javon Small scored 18 points and had seven assists as well as the Mountaineers forced 16 turnovers leading to 13 points. WVU held Utah to shoot 38 percent from the field while the Mountaineers shot 45.6 percent from the field.
UCF comes into the contest ranked fifth in the Big 12 in scoring offense, averaging 79.0 points per game on the season. Over their last 10 games, the Knights have reached that mark five times and they are 2-3 in those games. UCF has won their last three games and averaged 79.7 points per game. The Knights are 10th in the league in 3-point field goal percentage, and they are last in team field goal percentage, making 42.1 percent of their shots on the season.
Defensively, the Knights are giving up 80.1 points per game, which is last in the Big 12. UCF’s opponents have scored at least 90 points eight times this season. UCF is holding opponents to shoot 45.4 percent from the field, and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.
UCF is 13th in the Big 12 in rebounding margin, and ninth in turnover margin.
Over their last five games, their most frequent lineup on the floor has been Darius Johnson, Mikey Williams, Tyler Henricks, Keyshawn Hall, and Moustapha Thiam. This lineup has been used 11.4 percent of the time this season.
Hall leads the Big 12 in scoring with 18.9 points per game, and he’s also leading the Knights in rebounding, averaging 7.1 rebounds per game. Hall has 178 free throws this season, which is most in the Big 12.
UCF comes into the game ranked 78th in the NET and 77th in KenPom. This is a Quad 1 game for the Knights and they are 3-10 in such games.
West Virginia is currently averaging 68.3 points per game this season, which is 15th in the Big 12, but they are only allowing 64.7 points per game this season, which is second in the Big 12. The Mountaineers are shooting 42.6 percent from the floor, but their opponents are only shooting 40.8 percent from the field this season.
From beyond the arc, West Virginia is shooting 32.7 percent, which is 11th in the league, but they have the fifth-most 3-point field goals made at 8.6 per game. During Big 12 play though, WVU ranks 11th in 3-point field goal percentage, but they drop to 6th in threes made per game. WVU’s opponents are shooting 29.5 percent from beyond the arc on the season, which is best in the Big 12.
Over their last five games, their most frequent lineup on the floor has been Javon Small, Sencire Harris, Jonathan Powell, Toby Okani, and Amani Hansberry. This lineup has been used 21.5 percent of the time over WVU’s last five games.
Small is second in the Big 12 in scoring, at 18.2 points per game. He’s 13th in field goal percentage, third in free throw percentage, and is fourth in the league in assists per game.
West Virginia is ranked 49th in the NET, and 52nd by KenPom. This is considered a Quad 3 game for WVU as the Mountaineers are 3-0 in such games this year.
West Virginia has a chance to get into the top eight of the Big 12 standings with a win. They are in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league, which would earn them a bye in the Big 12 Tournament next week. WVU is tied with TCU and Kansas State. TCU faces Colorado on the road this weekend, while Kansas State faces Iowa State.
UCF is tied with Cincinnati at 7-12 in the Big 12 standings, tied for 12th in the league standings. The Bearcats face Oklahoma State this weekend.
———-
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
•Like us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
Kansas State women’s basketball coach Jeff Mittie on Ayoka Lee injury
Kansas State women’s basketball coach Jeff Mittie talks about Ayoka Lee’s foot injury after she missed Monday’s game against Baylor.
K-State Athletics
Now the wait begins.
The fifth-seeded Kansas State women’s basketball team jumped on No. 4 seed West Virginia with a torrid first half but couldn’t hold off the Mountaineers down the stretch Friday as they dropped a 73-69 Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal decision at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
With the loss, No. 19-ranked K-State fell to 26-7 and will have to wait for a week from Sunday to see if its resume is good enough to warrant a top 16 seed as host for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 16 West Virginia, which swept two games from the Wildcats — the Mountaineers won 70-57 in Morgantown — moves to face TCU or Colorado on Saturday.
K-State was up 33-23 after one quarter, 44-36 at halftime and took a 58-56 advantage to the fourth period. The Wildcats led 69-67 when Kennedy Taylor scored the last of her team-high 21 points with 1:52 left but was shut out the rest of the way.
West Virginia took a 71-69 lead on JJ Quinerly’s basket with 43.4 seconds left and tacked on two Sydney Shaw free throws at 11.4 seconds to preserve the victory. Quinerly had 24 points, Jordan Harrison 19 and Shaw 13 to lead the Mountaineers.
In addition to Taylor, K-State got 16 points from Temira Poindexter and 10 with nine assists from Serena Sundell. K-State again was without center Ayoka Lee, who is recovering from a foot injury but is expected back for the NCAA Tournament.
Here are three takeaways from a disappointing loss for K-State:
K-State made an incredible 13 of 15 shots in the first quarter, including 5 of 6 3-pointers, while only turning the ball over three times against West Virginia’s pressure defense.
Alas, the Wildcats shot just 38.8% and were 3-for-12 from 3-point range the rest of the way. The Wildcats did take better care of the ball against a swarming West Virginia defense with 15 turnovers after they had 21 in the regular season matchup.
In fact, K-State outscored West Virginia off turnovers, 20-15, though 19 of those points came in the first half.
Kennedy Taylor didn’t start at center for K-State, but she quickly made up for it. Taylor made all nine of her shots in 21 minutes of action coming off the bench for Eliza Maupin.
Maupin matched up better underneath against West Virginia starter Kylee Blacksten, but when the bigger Jordan Thomas entered the game, Taylor quickly came off the bench.
The Wildcats consistently found Taylor on the low block, where West Virginia could not stop her.
K-State fouled just 14 times to 19 for West Virginia, but the Mountaineers got to the foul line 21 times to just 10 for the Wildcats.
Shaw made all five of her foul shots and Quinerly 4 of 6 as the Mountaineers outscored K-State from the line, 16-7.
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.
Grafton is the No. 4 seed in the Class AAA state tournament (Photo by Teran Malone)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Eight teams have qualified for the WVSSAC Class AAA Girls Basketball State Tournament. The five-day, 28-game event will begin on March 11 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. Radio broadcasts of all state tournament games will air on the MetroNews Radio Network and will be streamed at wvmetronews.com. MetroNews will also produce HD video broadcasts of the four championship games.
Class AAA State Tournament seeds:
Class AAA Quarterfinals:
Tuesday, March 11
Game 1 – No. 4 Grafton vs. No. 5 East Fairmont – 11:15 a.m.
Game 2 – No. 1 Nitro vs. No. 8 Lewis County – 7:15 p.m.
Wednesday, March 12
Game 3 – No. 3 Greenbrier East vs. No. 6 Sissonville – 11:15 a.m.
Game 4 – No. 2 Wayne vs. No. 7 Keyser – 7:15 p.m.
Class AAA Semifinals:
Friday, March 14
Game 5 – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner – 9:30 a.m.
Game 6 – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner – 1 p.m.
Class AAA Championship:
Saturday, March 15
Game 7 – Semifinal winners, 12:30 p.m.
The Supreme Court just handed the Trump administration a win on USAID
Chief Justice John Roberts pauses judge’s order for Trump admin to pay foreign aid contractors by midnight
Will the EU take on three new official languages?
Engwe Mapfour N1 Pro e-bike review: the new ‘premium’
Elon Musk’s SpaceX prepares for 8th Starship launch, pending FAA approval
Boat Crew Spots Thousands of Dolphins in a California Bay ‘Superpod’
Map: 4.8-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Texas
Huntington Park, California, city hall and mayor’s home raided in $14M public funds probe
