West Virginia Basketball: 3 takeaways in loss against Gonzaga in Jimmy V Classic

West Virginia Basketball suffered its first loss of the season in a game they led most of the way.

11th ranked West Virginia Basketball replaced Tennessee after a COVID-19 crisis, as they stepped in to face the number one ranked Bulldogs of Gonzaga. The game went just about how you would expect an 11 vs. 1 matchup to go.

West Virginia came out firing, and the Bulldogs had no answers for them early on. Oscar Tshiebwe was doing most of the scoring early on, but would eventually foul out in the second half. He would finish the game with 14 points and nine rebounds. An early injury to freshman phenom, Jalen Suggs rattled the Zags early on, as they trailed going into the half 39-34.

However, Suggs would return in the second half, and his presence allowed the Zags to surpass the Mountaineers and not look back. While the end result didn’t go in their favor, Bob Huggins team still had a ton of production. Their star forward, Derek Culver finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Miles McBride also contributed with 10 points to go along with five assists from the guard position.

Losing Tshiebwe was a huge difference-maker, as having him and Culver move bodies around down low really set the pace for the game. Even after his exit, the Mountaineers still ended up outrebounding Gonzaga, 41-36 which goes to show how big of an impact the paint had in the showdown.

Rebounding really is the only facet of the game that West Virginia won on, as they lost the turnover battle, 15 to 11, and shot a measly 37.9% from the field, compared to Gonzaga’s 49.3%. The key difference maker was steals, that Gonzaga won nine to two. Each team’s biggest lead of the game was nine points.