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Coastal Carolina Downs WVU

Harler scores career-high 15

West Virginia guard Jermaine Haley (10) drive while defended by TCU forward JD Miller (15) during the first overtime of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, in Morgantown, W.Va. (AP Photo/Raymond Thompson)

MORGANTOWN — The roller coaster ride known as the 2018-19 West Virginia men’s basketball season took another downward spiral Monday night in front of a crowd of 6,775 as Coastal Carolina took advantage of some shoddy defense by the host Mountaineers to pull out a 109-91 victory and advance to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.

Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year DeVante Jones scored a game and career-high 32 points as CCU improved to 17-16 on the season.

“It’s hard to play much better, offensively, than we played,” CCU coach Cliff Ellis said. “What pleased me most was not the points, but our rebounding. We knew coming in that they (WVU) were one of the best rebounding teams in the country and our kids just did a wonderful job of keeping the off the boards.”

WVU, which suffered its first 21-loss season under coach Bob Huggins, was paced by Emmitt Matthews Jr.’s and Lamont West’s 21, but it was far from enough for a Mountaineer team which did have the services of All-Big 12 Freshman First Teamer Derek Culver.

“The NCAA has become all about the individual’s rights,” a bewildered Bob Huggins said following the game.

“We got caught up in those-individual-rights-thing this year. But when you are part of a team then you give up those individual rights for the better of the team.”

Culver, who tallied 12 points and hauled down 10 rebounds in only 18 minutes of action, was scratched from the starting lineup for ‘actions detrimental to the team’ and his absence during the first 20 minutes of action was evident.

“They (CCU) shot the ball extremely well,” Chase Harler, who tallied a career-high 15 points in the setback, said. “Part of that was them feeling comfortable and making shots, but part of it was on us for not playing harder on defense.

“It’s kind of been the story of our season. We take a couple of steps forward like we did in the Big 12 tournament and in our first game in the CBI and then we play like we did (Monday) and take two steps back.”

Three other Mountaineers reached double digits as Jermaine Haley added 12 points while Jordan McCabe and Culver finished with 11.

CCU also placed six players in double figures with Tommy Burton finishing with 16 points, Zac Cuthbertson (15), Ebrima Dibba (14), and Ajay Sanders and Tyrell Gumbs-Frater 11 each.

“He (Jones) just had one of those nights,” said Ellis. “It was there for him. He had the opportunity and he made the shots.”

West Virginia will head into an offseason which is expected to see a lot of change in the roster that played this season.

But, both Huggins and Harler agreed on one simple answer.

“It will get fixed,” said the duo.

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