Shanna Rose | WV Sport
ORLANDO, Fla. — For seven minutes in the second half, it looked like UCF was about to run West Virginia out of the building.
Instead, the Mountaineers walked away with one of their biggest wins of the season.
WVU erased a 14-point deficit after halftime and closed the night on a dominant stretch to defeat the Knights 74-67 on Saturday at Addition Financial Arena, handing UCF just its third home loss of the year.
The Knights which have home wins over Kansas and Texas Tech, led 29-28 at halftime and quickly extended their advantage by outscoring the Mountaineers 23-10 to open the second half. UCF pushed the margin to 46-35 before the momentum shifted.
That shift came with Chance Moore’s layup, which snapped the Knights’ run and sparked a seven-minute stretch in which WVU scored 16 of the next 23 points. The surge cut the deficit to 54-53 with 7:26 remaining.
Jasper Floyd tied the game at 56 with a 3-pointer, then Honor Huff took over.
Huff, who struggled in the first half, poured in 18 of his game-high 21 points after the break. The senior guard scored the Mountaineers’ next 13 points, giving WVU a 69-62 lead with 59 seconds left.
“Jasper hit some monster shots down the stretch and played tremendous defense,” Mountaineer head coach Ross Hodge said.
Floyd finished with 17 points, five rebounds and two steals, marking his best scoring performance since the season opener against Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 4. Brenen Lorient added 11 points for WVU (16-9, 7-5 Big 12), which completed its second 14-point, second-half comeback road win in nine days after rallying at Cincinnati on Feb. 4.
Despite entering the game averaging 82.4 points per contest, UCF managed just two field goals over the final 5:29. The Knights finished with their lowest home scoring output of the season, as the Mountaineers limited UCF to 30 scores on 67 possessions — a 44.8 percent scoring rate — and forced turnovers on 19.4 percent of its possessions.
“I thought we had the game where we needed it,” Hodge said. “The pace was where we needed it and we just didn’t start the second half great. A lot of it was our turnovers. They are so explosive in transition and (Themus) Fulks is so good. You open up that floor and put their athletes out there running and it was turnover, two dribbles and layup.”
Themus Fulks led the Knights (17-7, 6-6) with 19 points before fouling out in the closing seconds. Riley Kugel scored 13, while Jordan Burks and Chris Johnson added 10 apiece. John Bol recorded five blocks.
The victory strengthened WVU’s postseason position. Entering the night ranked 63rd in the NCAA NET, the Mountaineers are expected to climb following a road win over a UCF team ranked 44th. The result also moved WVU into a tie with No. 22 BYU for sixth place in the Big 12 standings.
“They let me coach them hard and direct, and in those moments, they allow me to be brutally honest,” Hodge said. “They might not like what is coming out of my mouth, but they trust me enough to know he’s telling me the truth.”
The Mountaineers return to the Coliseum on Wednesday night to host Utah.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
