West Virginia Basketball: three takeaways from the loss to Baylor

Monday night, the West Virginia Mountaineers traveled to Waco, TX, to face-off against the Baylor Bears. In the end, the Mountaineers fell just short, 81-77; but overall played one of their best games of January.

Although West Virginia couldn’t pull through with a win, the Mountaineers put on a show the entire time. Even though the scoreboard says otherwise, the Mountaineers are heading in the right direction. Here are three takeaways from Monday’s game:

The Mountaineers played aggressive; almost too aggressive

Despite losing by four, West Virginia made Baylor’s win look difficult throughout the game.
The Mountaineers were the first to get on the board for the first time in their last three games.

Fouls became an issue early on in the game. Luckily for the Mountaineers, Baylor missed their first seven free throws, which opened the door for the Mountaineers to get ahead. The Mountaineers concluded the first half with the lead, 39-31.

West Virginia quickly slowed down despite an exciting first half and allowed Baylor to outscore them by 12 in the second half. The defense and aggression calmed down, which led Baylor to cruise into the lead.

In total, the Mountaineers racked up 21 fouls on the night, allowing Baylor to score an additional 14 points. The aggressive approach had pros and cons but demonstrated that West Virginia is close to snapping its six-game losing streak.