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THURSDAY MARCH 8, 2018
WVU awaits third battle with Baylor BY PATRICK KOTNIK SPORTS EDITOR Will the third head-to-head matchup against West Virginia be the charm for Baylor? That remains to be seen when the two teams square off for the third time this season in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at 9 p.m. inside the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. No. 3-seeded West Virginia swept the regular season series over No. 6-seeded Baylor, escaping the Bears with a narrow 5754 win in Morgantown on Jan. 9 followed by a 71-60 win in Waco, Texas on Feb. 20, a game that the Mountaineers controlled from start to finish. A strong defensive effort carried West Virginia in both victories as the Mountaineers forced a combined 35 turnovers which led to 42 total points. “They’ve got the best perimeter defender in the country in Jevon Carter and arguably the best interior defender in Sagaba Konate,” said Baylor head coach Scott Drew. “So, it makes it real tough on the defensive end and they’re very good when they cause turnovers and get in transition.” Carter was recently named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive year and earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Defensive team for the fourth consecutive year, becoming just the third player from a major conference and first Big 12 player to accomplish the feat. “I think it starts with his work ethic, he has a great, great work ethic,” said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. “He has great feet, he’s got very very quick
PHOTO BY RYAN ALEXANDER
Jevon Carter leaps into the air to shoot a contested layup against Iowa State int he 2017 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. hands and he’s got a great desire to guard. He takes a lot of pride in wanting to defend.” Defense will be a key again for West Virginia as it prepares for its third matchup against a Baylor team that has dropped three of its previous four games, but has three players who average double figures, led by senior guard Manu Lecomte who averages 15.7 points per game.
“They can score the ball,” Huggins said. “They have multiple guys that are capable of going for 20 points on a given night and it’s hard to play against that zone.” West Virginia struggled against Baylor’s zone in the two teams’ first meeting earlier this season, shooting just 31 percent from the field and scoring a season-low 57 points. According to Huggins, the
BRACKET
team’s offensive approach is a simple one--they have to score. “We’ve got to make shots,” Huggins said. “Going back and looking at the Texas game for instance our two best shooters, Lamont (West) had a wideopen shot, Beetle (Bolden) had a wide open shot and neither one of them went down. They’re not going to make them all, nobody makes them all but you have to make them at times when you need them.” Defensively, Huggins wants to see his team defend to a high intensity level and rebound, which will be a challenge for West Virginia going up against Baylor’s length and size. “We haven’t guarded the way we guard,” Huggins said. We haven’t rebounded the ball.” The Big 12 tournament will be an unpredictable one considering the talent from top to bottom no matter any team’s regular season record, which is different than West Virginia’s previous conference, the Big East, according to Huggins. Each team in the conference has shown the ability to beat one another on any given day. “The Big East had a bottom,” Huggins said. “There were five or six teams you were supposed to beat and if you were a middle of the pack team you played two of those twice.” Whether or not West Virginia can pull off a third win over Baylor this season remains to be seen, but if the Bears come out victorious, it wouldn’t come off as a surprise with the depth and talent within this conference. “There is no bottom in this league,” Huggins said. “There is no bottom in the coaching.”
CHALLENGE
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A LOOK INSIDE
Impressive student participation for SGA debate
A great turnout for Mountaineers at Monday night’s debate page 3
Last Cross Country Van’s Warped Tour this summer
This summer’s lineup is bringing it back to the page 4 beginning
Women’s History Month A look at notable women throughout history.
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