West Virginia’s second-half meltdown leads to a 22 point loss at home

The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-14, 2-9 Big 12) just keep coming up with new and creative ways to make this season as bad as possible. Tonight’s 75-53 loss to the Texas Longhorns (14-10, 6-5 Big 12) is the Mountaineers’ worst home loss since their 62-39 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats in Bob Huggins’ first season as West Virginia head coach.

The Mountaineers managed to keep it relatively close through the first half, trailing 34-28 going into the locker room, but the second half was just an unmitigated disaster. The Longhorns opened the second half on a 10-1 run before Esa Ahmad scored West Virginia’s first field goal of the half.

Texas turned the game into a dunk contest midway through the half, growing their lead to as much as 29 points.

Esa Ahmad led the Mountaineers with 14 points, 6 rebounds. Derek Culver added 7 points, 11 rebounds and Chase Harler finished with 7 points.

West Virginia travels to Lawrence to take on the No. 13 Kansas Jayhawks next Saturday. The Mountaineers already hold a win over the Jayhawks this season. That game tips off at 4:00PM EST and will be televised on ESPN.