West Virginia falls to Wake Forest 75-66
West Virginia wasn’t able to overcome mistakes falling 75-66 to Wake Forest inside the Charleston Coliseum Saturday night.
The loss drops the Mountaineers to 7-3 on the season with all three defeats coming on a neutral floor.
The Mountaineers went with the same starting five of point guard Jasper Floyd, guard Honor Huff, guard Treysen Eaglestaff, forward Brenen Lorient and center Harlan Obioha.
Huff led the Mountaineers with 24 points and forward Chance Moore scored 16.
The Mountaineers had 17 turnovers which resulted in 25 points for the Demon Deacons.
Obioha got the scoring started for the Mountaineers on an offensive rebound put back and that would be the only basket through the first two minutes of the game.
The Demon Deacons would surge ahead 6-3 approaching the 15:30 mark after a pair of threes. But back-to-back baskets by Moore put West Virginia back out front as the clock ticked toward 14-minutes left in the half.
Wake Forest would respond with four consecutive points to lead 10-7 and after tying the game Wake Forest would again hit a three-pointer to move back out front.
The Demon Deacons lead would sit at 19-12 at the 9:31 mark forcing head coach Ross Hodge to take a timeout. And that edge was 25-15 approaching six-minutes remaining in the first half. After another Wake Forest basket, West Virginia would then use a quick 8-0 run in 47 seconds to trim the deficit to 27-23 and bring the pro-Mountaineers crowd alive and Huff would nail another three-ball to make it 27-26.
Wake would end the 11-0 run with a basket but Huff would be fouled on a three-pointer and would close the 14-2 run by tying the game at 29-all with 2:20 left in the half.
The Mountaineers would take a 32-29 lead but Wake Forest would match them with a three of their own and after the teams traded baskets the teams entered halftime tied at 34.
The two teams exchanged baskets on their first possessions of the second half but Wake Forest’s was of the three variety to move ahead 37-36. And the Demon Deacons would then take a 42-36 lead at the 18:05 mark and then completed an 11-0 run to go back out front 45-36 forcing Hodge to take another timeout.
The West Virginia deficit was at 49-40 with 14:49 left after a pair of free throws as the Demon Deacons retook control of the game in the first five minutes. The Demon Deacons held a 54-42 lead with 10:46 left in the game as they had outscored the Mountaineers 20-8 at that point of the half.
West Virginia would trim the edge under 10 multiple times, but the Demon Deacons would continue to respond and the lead was still 58-47 with exactly eight minutes left in the game.
The Mountaineers used another run to cut the deficit to 61-56, but again Wake Forest would again respond with six consecutive points to push the edge back out to 67-56 with just 3:40 left.
And from there Wake Forest would be able to close out the game.
The Mountaineers will next take on Little Rock Dec.9 at 7 p.m. inside the Hope Coliseum.
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