WVU basketball was easily handled by the BYU Cougars in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday, as the Mountaineers saw their season come to a disappointing end with a 20-point loss that moved them to 18-14 to finish the year.
There are plenty of places you could look in a loss like the one the Mountaineers suffered on Wednesday, but it didn't take head coach Ross Hodge very long during his post-game press conference to pinpoint exactly where things went wrong for his team against the Cougars.
Turnovers prove fatal for West Virginia Mountaineers as BYU knocks them from the Big 12 Tournament
WVU committed 22 turnovers against BYU on Wednesday, with a stunning 35% of the team's possessions ending with them giving the ball back to the Cougars on a turnover. And a veteran coach like Hodge understands how significant that is to the outcome of the game.
"Obviously, we turned the ball over entirely too much," Hodge said after the loss. "We felt pretty fortunate to just be down eight at the half considering we had 14 turnovers. It felt like our defense held up pretty good for the most part when we weren't throwing them the ball."
BYU would score 17 points off turnovers against West Virginia, and while they only outscored the Mountaineers by three points off turnovers, those numerous wasted possessions would add up as they struggled to score. WVU would finish the night with just 48 points, and if you turn just a handful of those 22 turnovers into points instead of scoreless possessions, all of a sudden it's a different game.