NCAA College Basketball Box Scores

National Basketball Association

BOXSCORE | RECAP

West Virginia 82, Texas Christian 70

When: 1:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 7, 2017
Where: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia
Officials: # Rick Crawford, # Ray Natali, # Marques Pettigrew
Attendance: 12568

By The Sports Xchange

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- No. 7 West Virginia emerged from a second-half dogfight against TCU thanks to a flurry of late 3-pointers and the inside play by freshman Sagaba Konate.

Daxter Miles scored a season-high 22 points, Jevon Carter sank three 3-pointers in a span of 2:15 and Konate had three blocked shots while scoring a career-best 13 points as the Mountaineers beat the Horned Frogs, 82-70, on Saturday.

Esa Ahmad scored 16 for the Mountaineers (13-2, 2-1 in the Big 12), who were only 3 of 17 from 3-point range before hitting 4 of 5 in the final 5:07 to break open a tie game.

Carter had gone 1 of 7 from the floor before scoring 11 of his 13 points late. After his first 3-pointer put West Virginia ahead, 68-61, he stared up at the WVU Coliseum rafters and screamed.

"I was happy to see one go in," Carter said. "Then I felt like couldn’t miss."

Erasing an 11-point halftime deficit, TCU (12-3, 1-2) capped a 17-6 run on Desmond Bane's free throw to pull even at 57-57.

"We came in here expecting to win," TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. "We're tied up, right where we wanted to be at the 7-8 minute mark, but down the stretch we didn't make the plays."

West Virginia snapped the deadlock with Miles scoring on an alley-oop pass from Tarik Phillip and Konate blocking a layup attempt by Kenrich Williams.

The 6-foot-9 Konate converted a conventional three-point play on the opposite end -- flexing his biceps after the basket -- and scored seven points in the final 9:06.

The crowd of 12,568 roared when Konate raced back in transition to swat Bane's shot above the backboard square.

"That really got us going; that was a big-time block," said coach Bob Huggins, who had flashbacks to his former All-American Kenyon Martin at Cincinnati. "The difference is Kenyon did it about six times a game."

Alex Robinson led TCU with 17 points while committing five turnovers, and Vlad Brodziansky scored 14. Highly touted point guard Jaylen Fisher finished with six turnovers, four assists and eight points in his debut against "Press Virginia."

The Mountaineers led only 19-18 before a seven-minute stretch of patient offense and tough defense fueled a 16-5 run. Five layups, one dunk and a 3-pointer by Lamont West solved TCU's zone, while the Frogs suffered through a string of six turnovers.

TCU closed the half with 11 turnovers and only four assists while trailing, 39-28, before making its second-half charge. Still, West Virginia finished with a 28-9 edge in points off turnovers and dealt the Frogs their 17th consecutive game against a ranked team.

"We just picked it up at the end," Carter said.

NOTES: West Virginia improved to 10-0 against TCU since the two joined the Big 12 five seasons ago. ... TCU played its second game since the departure of G Malique Trent, the junior whose playing time diminished after he averaged 11.6 points and 2.1 steals last season. ... The Frogs' 18 turnovers matched their season-high, but tied for the third-fewest forced by WVU this season. ... Mountaineers assistant coach Ron Everhart missed the game a day after undergoing back surgery. "He had a lot done, pretty major surgery," said coach Bob Huggins, who offered no timetable for Everhart's return.

Top Game Performances

Texas Christian		West Virginia
Alex Robinson 17	Scoring	Daxter Miles Jr. 22
Jaylen Fisher 4	Assists	Tarik Phillip 6
Kenrich Williams 7	Rebounds	Nathan Adrian 9
Alex Robinson 9	Free Throws Made	Sagaba Konate 3
Alex Robinson 2	Steals	Nathan Adrian 2
N/A	Blocks	Sagaba Konate 3

Team Stats Summary

Team	Points	FG%	3PM-3PA	FTM-FTA	Assists	Rebounds	Blocks	Steals	Turnovers
Texas Christian	70	46.2	5-14	17-21	14	28	0	5	18
West Virginia	82	45.8	7-23	9-14	23	35	5	8	9