The Red Raiders were dominated on the boards. One game after being outrebounded by Baylor by 19 rebounds, the defending Big 12 regular season co-champions were beaten by 13 boards overall by Mountaineers. Texas Tech (10-5, 1-2) were outrebounded for the second straight game by West Virginia (13-2, 2-1).
Despite four early three-pointers from Texas Tech, West Virginia was able to play a consistent first half and head into the locker at the break up 37-31.
“I think Moro played with a lot of courage tonight,” coach Chris Beard said. “Shooting, I never really worry about with Moro. I thought he played better defense tonight. He was trying to lead at big times of the games.
The Mountaineers would go on to lead for the entire second half, the final 26:09 of the contest. A late run by the Red Raiders cut the deficit to 52-46 on an Avery Benson trey with 7:11 to go in the game, but WVU would extend their lead and never looked back.
West Virginia freshman Mile McBride led all scorers with 22 points while Brandon Knapper chipped in 10 points.
The second-leading scorer in the Big 12 Red Raider freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey came into the game averaging 17.7 points per game. Ramsey, however, struggled at spurts in the game but Deuce McBride was the star underclassman.
WVU Oscar Tshiebwe finished with 7 points and 17 rebounds. Derek Culver added nine points and seven boards.
Davide Moretti ended with 16 points for Red Raiders.
West Virginia returns to action on Tuesday against TCU in Morgantown. That game tips off at 9:00 PM ET and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
