West Virginia rallies on the road to beat UCF 74-67
West Virginia overcame a 14-point second half deficit to beat UCF 74-67 on the road inside Addition Financial Arena Saturday night.
The Mountaineers now sit at 16-9, 7-5 in the Big 12 Conference and scored a major road win in the process after trailing 51-37 in the second half. It was only the third loss at home for the Knights this season.
Guard Honor Huff had 21 points while point guard Jasper Floyd scored 17 points, forward Chance Moore scored 12 points and forward Brenen Lorient had 11 points.
The Mountaineers went with their usual starting five of Floyd, Huff, guard Treysen Eaglestaff, Lorient and center Harlan Obioha.
The Knights scored on their first possession hitting a three but the Mountaineers would also finish with a basket by Floyd and he would score again to put the visitors up 4-3. UCF would wrestle the lead back on a basket and the two teams would then exchange several empty possessions.
Huff would connect on a three to put West Virginia back ahead 7-5 heading into the first media timeout with 15:20 remaining in the half. The Knights would move ahead 10-8 with 12:58 remaining in the half although both teams struggled to shoot the ball early in the contest.
The Mountaineers led 14-10 after Moore scored on consecutive possessions but UCF would connect on a three to trim the lead to a single point. The lead remained at one point at 16-15 before Eaglestaff would provide some cushion on a tough layup with 8:05 remaining in the half.
The Knights would move back ahead on a three-pointer at 20-18 after scoring five straight points as the Mountaineers continued to struggle with turnovers. The two would then go back and forth with the score sitting at 24 all with 3:33 left to play before the break.
The Knights would take a three-point lead off a trio of free throws and then add a basket to make it 29-24 with 2:21 remaining led to a timeout by Ross Hodge. But the Mountaineers would close the half scoring four straight to cut the deficit to just 29-28.
The Knights would score to open the second half and increased their lead to 36-30 after the first two minutes of the second frame. And the edge would extend to 39-30 after a three-pointer as the Mountaineers were being outscored 10-2 to start the second half.
However, West Virginia would then score five straight of their own to trim it to 39-35 before the Knight would answer back with four of their own to give them an eight-point cushion. UCF would then push it back into double digits to move ahead 46-35 with 14:35 left.
The lead would sit at 51-37 with 13:07 left leading to another timeout by the West Virginia bench after the 12-2 run by the Knights. The Mountaineers would cut it back down to 52-46 with 10 minutes remaining off a quick 8-0 run with 9:58 remaining in the game.
And West Virginia would trim it to 54-51 with 8:00 left in the game and it would inch even close after a pair of Eaglestaff free throws to just a single point. After a UCF basket, Floyd would hit a three to tie the game at 56 with 6:25 left to play.
The Knights would again retake the lead at 58-56 but again the Mountaineers would tie the game at 59-all with 5:13 left to play after three Huff free throws. The Knights would then connect on three free throws to make the edge 62-59 with 3:52 left in the game.
Huff would cut it to 62-61 on a layup and after a stop went to the foul line to give the Mountaineers a 63-62 lead with 2:37 remaining. And Floyd would respond with a three to make it 66-62 with just 1:40 left.
And after another stop Huff hit a three to make it 69-62 with 59.3 left but the Knights would score and get an and-one to quickly cut the lead to 69-65.
Floyd would add a free throw, but UCF would score on the other end to cut it to 70-67 and Huff would step to the line with 24 seconds remaining to connect on both to make it 72-67.
After a miss, Eaglestaff was fouled and would head to the line and nailed both to make it 74-67.
The Mountaineers will next host Utah at home Wednesday night.
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