Shanna Rose | WV Sports Chat
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Treysen Eaglestaff scored 22 points as West Virginia staved off a second-half comeback by Colorado to pick up a 72–61 victory on Saturday night.
Honor Huff heated up in the final seven minutes, scoring nine of his 14 points for the Mountaineers (12-6, 3-2 Big 12). Brenen Lorient had 12 points and nine rebounds, and Harlan Obioha added 10 points and nine boards.
“I thought Trey got us off to an awesome start, and it was kind of a hard-fought, back-and-forth game,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said.
In the first half, Amir Jenkins gave the Mountaineers a 22–10 lead with 10:27 left. The Buffaloes used a 7–0 run to pull within three on a 3-pointer from Sebastian Rancik.
WVU closed out the half on a 6–2 run to take a 36–29 advantage at the break.
Alon Michaeli and Barrington Hargress drained back-to-back 3-pointers during a 12–2 run to give Colorado a 43–42 edge with 13:37 left in the game, its first lead of the night. Jasper Floyd’s layup put WVU back in front, and the Mountaineers followed with a 13–3 run to take a 55–46 lead.
“The game really played out the way I thought it would,” Hodge said. “They’ve been such a good second-half team. If you look at home against Texas Tech, they were down big and had a 3-point try to win the game. The other night at Cincinnati it was the same type of situation, so we knew they would surge in the second half.
“You try to prevent it, but that’s who they’ve been, and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
Hargress led Colorado (12-6, 2-3) with 15 points, while Isaiah Johnson added 12 and Bangot Dan had 11. Rancik finished with 10.
WVU shot 52 percent from the field and dominated the boards, 38–22.
The Mountaineers’ defense stifled Colorado in the second half, holding the Buffaloes to 33 percent shooting (10 of 30).
Huff ranks second in the country with 68 3-pointers this season, trailing only Belmont’s Tyler Lundblade (70).
WVU is part of a four-way tie with Iowa State, UCF and Kansas for fifth place in the Big 12 and faces a two-game road test at Arizona State and No. 1 Arizona next week.
Photo Credit: Dale Sparks- All Pro Photography- WVU Athletics
