I feel like a broken record at this point – we have to stop playing with our food. Again, respectfully as possible, this is not a very talented Coppin State team. They’ve got a couple hoopers for sure, but I mean come on.
They jumped out in this game 9–2 and it looked like we were in for a really long night. Thankfully, we were able to remember that we play in a Power 5 conference and stormed back, but even at that point nothing was that great to start. Remember earlier this year how I was saying that we have some offensive fire power, and more importantly, we have guys who can shoot the 3 now? Welp, I don’t know what happened to that team, but in the first half we couldn’t hit shit. 6/19 from deep and half of the makes came from Honor Huff, who shot 9 3’s by himself through 20 minutes. As angry as that makes me, if it wasn’t for him and Chance Moore (11 points on 4/6 shooting in the half) we may be down in this game.
I was just on a podcast talking about how I wish we were playing in a Group of 5/mid-major conference because we, way too often, play like we don’t belong in the same breath as Oklahoma, Kansas, or Kentucky. The first half was a pretty good example of exactly that. We were lethargic at times, we couldn’t shoot, we only had a 3 rebound advantage in the rebounding battle, and while our team defense was great it wasn’t turning into turnovers as we lost that battle in the first half 5 to 7. I love this university more than any other team I support, but they also make me want to die. The dichotomy of being a West Virginia Mountaineer.
As for our performance in the second half? I still feel like a broken record. We extend our lead from 8 to 20 in the first 7 minutes, and that’s incredible, but WHY can’t we just play like this the whole game? I’m aware that sometimes teams have to warm up, but why do WE have to warm up every single game? Just one time, I would love it if we just came out, hit a bunch of shots, went up 20 in the first 6 minutes, and then coasted the rest of the game. But no, they have to stress me out for the first half and then make me look like an idiot for stressing at all in the second.
Credit where credit is due, this game turned into a slaughter despite the rough start. We won the game 91–49, we won the rebounding battle 45–36, and we had 14 more points in the paint than they did. We have some things to work on though: we shot 32% from 3, 61% from the line, and we lost a bit of our fire defensively in the second half. A win is a win, though, and I’ll take those every day. Our next game is Saturday against Wake Forest in Charleston, and I’m really upset that I don’t live there anymore because I would have loved to catch that one.
As for the Roundball Big 3 of the Game, it’s more of the usual suspects.
Honor Huff: 17 points, 5 3s
Brenen Lorient: 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks
Chance Moore: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 6/8 from the field
I’ll talk to you Saturday, Pops. I love you. What a great day to be a Mountaineer.
Round The Game 
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