West Virginia fell short of No. 24 Virginia on Wednesday night for their second loss in Florida. Let’s take a look at the takeaways from the game.
Need Someone Else Other Than Edwards, Slazinski
About 28 minutes into the game, West Virginia only had Jesse Edwards, Quinn Slazinski and Patrick Suemnick get on the scoreboard. It wasn’t until a spark from Seth Wilson and Kobe Johnson to where others scored. Virginia always has elite defense but West Virginia wasn’t hitting many shots either. Wilson shot 3-of-11 while Josiah Harris went 0-of-5.
West Virginia is without Arizona transfer guard Kerr Kriisa until Dec. 16 as they also have unknown possibilities with RaeQuan Battle (ineligible) and Akok Akok (health). WVU interim HC Josh Eilert needs to find another consistent scoring threat whether that’s Johnson or Wilson until Kriisa returns.
Points Off Turnovers Biggest Factor
During the first week of the season, West Virginia did a great job at handling the ball and not turning it over. On Wednesday, WVU turned it over 16 times against a top-10 defense in Virginia. UVA took advantage, scoring 18 points off of those turnovers. West Virginia only scored two points off of Virginia’s turnovers. There were many reasons why West Virginia did not win but it comes down to how Virginia took advantage of WVU turning the ball over.
West Virginia is now averaging 12.0 turnovers a game.
WVU Needs to Take Advantage of Next Homestand
West Virginia now sits at 2-3 as the schedule will not get easier throughout the season. The good news for the Mountaineers is that they host four straight home games against Bellarmine, St. John’s, Pitt and Drexel. St. John’s has struggled during Rick Pitino’s return to the Big East but Pitt has started off hot at 4-1 behind senior Blake Hinson and freshman Bub Carrington. West Virginia will need to go 3-1 or 4-0 in this stretch if they want to catch up with the rest of the Big 12 schools.
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