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West Sets Another Career-High Scoring 23

MORGANTOWN — Its second-leading scorer out with a sore back, its senior leader on the bench dealing with foul problems and its legendary coach needing help off of the court following a timeout, No. 12 West Virginia (22-6 overall, 10-5 Big 12) found itself in need of a big lift as it played host to an unranked and struggling Texas (10-18, 4-11) team on ESPN’s Big Monday at the Coliseum.

Enter redshirt freshman Lamont West.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, native tallied 20-first half points to help the Mountaineers forge a 14-point, 46-32, lead at the breal.

With WVU trailing by a 14-7 margin and struggling to find any offense against a Longhorns defense ranked No. 5 in the conference in scoring defense, giving up 69 points, West came in and provided the lift the hosts needed hitting back-to-back triples — the second one turning into a four-point play as he was fouled by UT’s Eric Davis — to propel West Virginia on a 21-3 run that culminated with two more West triples and a 31-20 lead with 7:29 left in the opening 20 minutes of action.

Texas, which came into Morgantown still in search of its first Big 12 road win, sliced the deficit to eight, 33-25, on a Jarret Allen deuce, but West and freshman Sagaba Konate tallied 11 of the Mountaineers’ final 13 points of the half.

Mountaineers fans around the country were forced to hold their breaths just before the halftime when Huggins was slowed getting up following a timeout. Players, assistants and even the officials surrounded the former Mountaineers player and helped him back to his bench where several players continued to make sure their head coach was OK.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” West said. “I just don’t want to talk about what happened there.”

Prior to Monday’s contest with the Longhorns, West’s best scoring effort came against Oklahoma State when the 6-foot-8 forward poured in 21 points. He eclipsed that total when he hit for his sixth 3-pointer with 12:05 left in the second half.

“My mom was here,” said West, who added four rebounds and two assists. “She doesn’t get to too many games so when she is here I don’t want to disappoint her.”

That wasn’t the case against the Longhorns as West connected on 7 of 10 shots (6 of 8 from the 3-point line) and all three of his free throws.

“I kind of knew I was in for a good night when I hit that first free throw,” West said. “Usually, if I’m hitting my free throws then my shot is going to be good and it gives me the confidence to look for my shot more.”

Joining West in double figures were junior Jevon Carter with a game-high 24 and junior Elijah Macon with 10. Carter added 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double while Konate chipped in eight points and senior Nathan Adrian finished with six.

Texas was paced by Jarrett Allen’s 17 points. Davis added 14, Kerwin Roach 13 and Andrew Jones 11 as the Longhorns dropped to 0-10 on the road in Big 12 games.

“I can’t explain it,” Texas head coach Shaka Smart said. “We came out with a lot of energy and I thought this might be the night we break that streak. Give credit to West Virginia. They never panicked and that’s the thing that makes them so tough at home.”

In other notes:

∫ The rigors of Big 12 play finally caught up with WVU as it was forced to go into its next-to-last home game without the services of sophomore standout Esa Ahmad. The Mountaineers’ second-leading scorer (11.7 pg) and third-leading rebounder (4.1 pg) was forced to the sidelines with a sore back suffered in Saturday’s double-overtime win over Texas Tech.

When the two teams met at the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, on Jan. 14, Ahmad was limited to four points and five rebounds in 15 minutes of action as WVU won 74-72.

∫ Wheeling Central Catholic standout Chase Harler heard his name called during the first half. With WVU leading by eight, 31-23, with 5:37 remaining before the half, the former Maroon Knight went in for West. His stat line was all zeroes in two minutes of play, but his time on the court proved important as it allowed West time to catch his breath after a torrid start to the game.

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