Miles Out, Paige Injured In #10 West Virginia's 85-78 Defeat To #24 Texas

Round two of #PressVirginia vs. Havoc again went the way of the Longhorns. West Virginia (20-6, 9-4) suffered their second loss of the season to Texas (17-9, 8-5) by a score of 85-78 on Tuesday night in Austin.

West Virginia started the game hot. A quick 12-4 run to start the game was capped off by a Nathan Adrian three and resulted in a quick timeout from Texas coach Shaka Smart.

Already shorthanded with the injury to Daxter Miles, West Virginia suffered another blow after Jaysean Paige turned his ankle on the foot of Elijah Macon midway through the first half.

The Mountaineers led 20-16 when Paige went out with an injury. Texas ended the half on a 29-14 run to take a 45-36 lead into the break.

Both teams shot the lights out in the first half. After combining for 105 total points in their last game in Morgantown (a 56-49 Texas victory), the two combined for 81 in only one half of play.

Paige attempted to play a few minutes in the second half, but was clearly severely limited by the injury. The Mountaineers weren't able to keep Isaiah Taylor out of the paint and didn't shoot it anywhere near as well as they did in the first half.

The Longhorns held a double-digit lead for most of the second half, but a late 10-0 run by West Virginia in the final minutes of the game made Texas sweat a little. Back-to-back threes by Jevon Carter and Tarik Phillip closed the gap to six at 75-69 with just over a minute to go, but Texas was able to close the game out at the foul line.

Tarik Phillip led West Virginia with 19 points off the bench. Devin Williams had another great game, scoring 18 on 9-11 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds. Holton, again coming off the bench, had 10 points and 8 rebounds. Nathan Adrian scored all of his 8 points in the first half.

Isaiah Taylor led the Longhorns with 23 points and 7 assists. He went 13-13 from the line. Eric Davis (15), Javan Felix (11), and Tevin Mack (10) rounded out the double-figure scorers. Click here for the full boxscore.

West Virginia dominated the glass, which kept the game competitive. They outrebounded Texas 40-22 overall and 18-5 on the offensive glass.

Texas' backcourt combo of Taylor and Felix again handled the press with relative ease. West Virginia forced only 7 Longhorn turnovers.

A few notes:

• Teyvon Myers started in place of Daxter Miles. Both Phillip and Paige have said they preferred to come off the bench. Huggins pulled Myers for Phillip only a couple minutes into the game.
• Bob Huggins tried a lineup tonight that he hadn't all year. With Miles not making the trip, Paige going down with an injury, and Phillip in foul trouble, Huggins went stretches with a 1-guard lineup of Jevon Carter with Adrian, Ahmad, Macon, and Williams.
• West Virginia is now 4-8 all-time against Texas and have lost six of their last seven against the Longhorns.
• The Mountaineers drop to second in the Big 12 standings, one game behind Kansas.

Up next for West Virginia is a home contest against the Oklahoma Sooners. The Mountaineers lost their first game against Oklahoma 70-68 in Norman. The game tips at 4:00 PM and will be televised on ESPN and WatchESPN.