Photo courtesy of WVU Athletic Communications WVU forward Chance Moore drives to the basket against TCU on Saturday.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s latest meltdown Saturday was another headscratcher.

The Mountaineers held TCU to its lowest point total and its second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, and yet the Horned Frogs still finished the game on a 17-5 run over the final eight minutes for a 60-54 victory inside the Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I thought our guys played really hard,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said on his radio postgame show. “I thought our effort was impressive. We kept fighting and kept battling. The truth is, you can play hard, but at some point in time, you’re going to have to play good. We didn’t play good enough for long enough today.”

The final eight minutes of the game was an offensive nightmare for the Mountaineers (16-11, 7-7 Big 12), who went 2 for 9 from the floor, turned it over three times and was charged with one shot clock violation.

And TCU (17-10, 7-7 Big 12), when it mattered most, made WVU pay almost every single time.

“We were up six and we had 10 offensive possessions late and we turned the ball over on four of those 10,” Hodge said. “Honor (Huff) made some tough shots that bailed us out for a stretch. Then it got a little stagnant.

“There were probably three of the 10 possessions where we had quality looks. “I’ve got to do a better job down the stretch of helping us.”

TCU forward David Punch scored seven of his 12 points during the Horned Frogs’ final run and TCU dominated on the glass with a 39-28 rebounding advantage, including 19 offensive rebounds that turned into 13 second-chance points.

“(Xavier) Edmonds and Punch do a good job of offensive rebounding. They are both physical,” Hodge said. “They do a good job of positioning themselves. Some of it is we are at a little bit of a size disadvantage, in particular when Harlan (Obioha) isn’t out there. Chance (Moore) did a good job of defensive rebounding and our guards tried, but too many times those guys were able to win one-on-one matchup situations and kind of pushed us under the basket.”

It all led up to West Virginia’s third loss over its last four games and the Mountaineers’ offense continues to struggle. WVU has reached 70 points in just one of its last eight games, averaging just 58.9 points per game over that stretch.

WVU’s defense did its job in this one, holding TCU to just four points over the first eight minutes of the game and the Horned Frogs finished just 18 of 53 (34%) from the floor for the game.

The Mountaineers, who shot 41 % (20 of 49) were never able to pull away early, though, and their six-point cushion with 8:03 remaining in the game never held up.

“For large stretches of the game, it felt like OK, who actually wants to win this game today,” Hodge said. “I don’t think either team played very well for most of the night. I felt whichever team ultimately decided it really wanted to win the game would. They were able to impose their will on us for the course of 40 minutes.”

WVU also turned the ball over 16 times, including two that came at the absolute worst time. WVU trailed 56-52 with 1:19 remaining, as Huff was trying to dribble through some traffic past halfcourt and the ball just simply got away from him.

The second one came 70 seconds later, as Huff was trying to drive to the basket for a quick lay-up, but was cut off by Jayden Pierre. Huff got the ball to Jasper Floyd along the sideline, who tried to pass it back to Huff, but the connection was never made. Huff didn’t catch the pass, but Floyd was charged with the turnover, as WVU trailed 58-54 at the time and was forced to foul. Pierre made two free throws with 7.4 seconds remaining for the final score.

Huff finished with 13 points and Brenen Lorient added 10 for WVU. Moore nearly missed out on a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds. Edmonds did get a double-double for TCU, finishing with 14 points and 13 rebounds.