West Virginia wins Big 12 home opener, defeats Texas Tech 66-54

Only one team was dancing in their locker room on Saturday night and this year it wasn’t the Red Raiders. West Virginia beat Texas Tech handily at the Coliseum 66-54.

Despite four early three-pointers from Texas Tech, West Virginia was able to play a consistent first half and head into the locker room ahead 37-31.

West Virginia would go on to lead for the entire second half, the final 26:09 of the game. A late run by Texas Tech cut the lead to 52-46 on an Avery Benson 3-pointer with 7:11 to go, but the Mountaineers would extend the lead again and win 66-54.

The second leading scorer in the Big 12 coming into the game was Red Raider freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey, averaging 17.7 point per game. Ramsey however wasn’t the best freshman on the floor as Deuce McBride’s star shined bright once again.

McBride provided a fire off the bench scoring a career-high 22 points, including 5-6 from the charity stripe. Ramsey finished with eight points on 3-15 shooting under the smothering West Virginia defense.

The ever-improving Brandon Knapper was the Mountaineers’ other double-digit scorer. Knapper played quality minutes, providing a spark and scored ten points. Knapper has cut his turnovers per game this season in half — averaging 0.8 turnovers from contest compared to last season’s average of 1.6 turnovers per.

Oscar Tshiebwe finished with 17 rebounds and 7 points. Derek Culver added nine points and seven rebounds.

West Virginia returns to action on Tuesday against TCU in Morgantown. That game tips off at 9:00PM ET and will be broadcast on ESPNU.