WVU cruises to win
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — West Virginia finally won a game in the Big 12 Tournament.
That’s a crucial step when the ninth-ranked Mountaineers’ goal is to win the whole thing.
Devin Williams had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead a balanced attack, and the No. 2 seed never trailed in an 86-66 victory over TCU in the quarterfinals Thursday night — their first in the tournament since bolting the Big East for the conference prior to the 2012 season.
“I guess that’s somewhat of an accomplishment,” Williams said, “but we’re here to win a championship. All we can do is use this to move forward, clean up what we did today and just move forward.”
The plucky Horned Frogs gave West Virginia a tussle most of the way.
They trailed just 63-55 midway through the second half before a spree of 3-pointers allowed the Mountaineers (25-7) to seize control. They pulled away in the final minutes to give coach Bob Huggins his first victory in the Big 12 Tournament since leading Kansas State to a win in the 2007 event.
“I told them before the season started to get together, write down what their goals were,” Huggins said. “One of their goals was to win the league championship, which we fell short. Then they wanted to win the tournament championship.”
With the balance they showed Thursday night, making a deep March run sure seems possible.
Jevon Carter contributed 15 points, Tarik Phillip had 13 and Jaysean Paige scored 12 as West Virginia moved on to the semifinals Friday against the winner of No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 21 Iowa State.
Chauncey Collins had 18 points to lead the No. 10 seed Horned Frogs (12-21),ho bumped off NCAA Tournament bubble team Texas Tech in the opening round.
