MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s free-throw shooting has been a problem over the first month of the season.
The Mountaineers entered Wednesday’s matchup against No. 15 Connecticut No. 317 in Division I at just under 65 percent from the line, and the problems continued with a 12 of 27 performance in the matchup against the Huskies as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle.
Yet it was a missed foul shot that proved to be perhaps the play of the game for the Mountaineers in their 56-53 victory before 12,045 at the Coliseum.
With West Virginia leading 52-51 with 21 seconds left, guard Taz Sherman stepped to the line and made his first attempt to double the lead. Sherman’s second free throw was off the mark, but Gabe Osabuohien snuck in for the offensive rebound, allowing Sean McNeil to make two free throws for a four-point advantage.
“Gabe’s rebound was the play of the game by far,” McNeil said.
Sherman echoed that thought.
“That play shows up as an offensive rebound, but it’s way bigger than that,” Sherman said. “Without that offensive rebound, you don’t know what type of game is next. That was a big-time play.”
Isaiah Whaley scored on a follow-up with 7 seconds remaining to the cut the Huskies’ deficit to two, before McNeil split two free throws.
RJ Cole’s last-second 3-point tying attempt missed, allowing the Mountaineers to prevail.
Following his 908th career win, WVU head coach Bob Huggins said he gave no thought to fouling in the final seconds to prevent the Huskies from having a chance to tie it on a triple.
“The way they offensive rebound it with their athletes, that didn’t make any sense to me at all,” Huggins said. “Too many bad things happen. I know that because I’ve done this for 40 years and done some really stupid things.”
Huggins elected to utilize a 1-3-1 zone down the stretch and it ultimately turned the game in the Mountaineers’ favor.
After Whaley’s dunk put the Huskies (8-2) up 47-43 with just inside 8 minutes remaining, UConn managed only two more field goals the rest of the way, and neither were in half court offense.
“[Associate head coach Larry Harrison] said last week maybe we ought to bring a 1-3-1 out,” Huggins said. “We were playing point drop and it hadn’t helped us any. Nobody has seen it for two or three years, so we figured let’s give it a shot. We have the personnel to do it. [Dimon Carrigan] on top is really good because he’s so long and Gabe just eats everything up. It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Consecutive baskets from close range by Sherman and Pauly Paulicap allowed WVU to tie it at 47 with 6:47 remaining, before Andre Jackson’s breakaway dunk off a steal gave UConn a one-point lead with 4:34 to play.
Jordan Hawkins made 2-of-3 free throws to stretch Connecticut’s lead to three, but the Mountaineers (8-1) pulled even again on the strength of one Kedrian Johnson free throw and Sherman’s driving bucket.
The Huskies’ endured a drought of nearly 4 full minutes after reaching the 51-point mark, while Paulicap broke the tie by making 1-of-2 free throws with 3:06 to play.
Trailing by one, Connecticut missed three shots on one possession out of a timeout, the last of which was a Tyler Polley 3-pointer early into a reset shot clock on a contested attempt from the corner.
“That’s situational basketball there,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “It was so frantic a situation and he kind of just took a panic shot.”
Jalen Bridges ultimately rebounded that miss to get the ball back to West Virginia, and though it didn’t have to, Connecticut fouled Sherman with 21 seconds remaining.
The biggest lead for both teams was five points, with WVU reaching the mark on separate occasions, the latter of which came on a Paulicap basket that made it 38-33.
Cole made two straight triples to start a 10-0 run that left the Huskies with a 43-38 lead at the midway point of the second half, but they managed only four baskets and 10 points the rest of the way.
“We turned up the defense a little more and created turnovers,” Sherman said.
The entire first half was played within four points, with the Mountaineers’ 9-5 advantage the largest lead for either team, before WVU settled for a 32-29 halftime advantage
McNeil, who missed Saturday’s win over Radford with a lower back injury, scored 13 of his 16 points in the opening half.
“It was good to see them go through and good to get the win,” McNeil said. “Basketball is a game of runs. They threw punches and we threw punches, but luckily we came out on top.”
Sherman, who led all players with 23 points, also had 13 in the first half. It marked the seventh time in West Virginia’s nine games Sherman has led the contest in scoring.
Osabuohien finished with six points and seven rebounds. He was 2-of-8 on free throws and Huggins pulled him from the game following an ill-advised 3-point attempt in the second half.
“He knows better than to shoot the three,” Huggins said. “He was tired and he was frustrated because he had just missed two free throws.”
The Huskies made only 3-of-21 attempts from 3-point range and were 1 of 13 excluding Cole.
Whaley led UConn with 15 points, while Cole had 14 and Jackson scored 10.
With Connecticut missing its second and third-leading scorers — Adama Sanogo and Tyrese Martin — to injury, Hawkins played an expanded role, but missed all seven of his shots and was held to two points.
Connecticut held a 35-31 rebounding advantage, but had 16 turnovers to West Virginia’s 12.
“Both teams played incredibly hard, which made the game really ugly,” Hurley said. “A real physical defensive struggle. Our undoing was some lack of discipline at the defensive end where we put them at the foul line. They did us a favor back by missing a lot, but 3-for-21 is a tough one. Eight, nine or ten of those were pretty good looks, and if we make a couple of them, we come out with the win.”