The West Virginia Mountaineers lost their first game of the season on Friday night in the opening round of the Charleston Classic in heartbreaking fashion, dropping a 70-67 loss to the Clemson Tigers in a contest that came down to the final possession after the Mountaineers sacrificed a double-digit lead in the final 11 minutes of play.
Whenever you have that type of advantage on an opponent late and you can't close out a win, your head coach is unlikely to be a happy camper following the loss. And that was no different for head coach Ross Hodge after his first loss at the helm of the WVU basketball program, as he lamented his team's second-half efforts on the defensive side of the ball after the Mountaineers gave up 45 second-half points and allowed Clemson to shoot 56 percent from the field and 55 percent from three-point range in the final 20 minutes.
"Just a tale of two halves. Bottom line, we're not going to win many games when we give up 45 points in the second half, a large part of that came in the final eight minutes." Hodge said. "To their credit, they found something that worked and we didn't adjust quick enough to it."
"Simply put, to me the difference was late in the game they were able to get the ball where they wanted it, when they wanted it and they made the shots. We were a little discombobulated and had to settle for some tough shots and just didn't execute at a high enough level to beat a good team on a neutral floor. It's disappointing."
It's optimistic that after his first loss coaching the old gold and blue that Hodge seems to recognize what the issue was and that he knows he needs to fix it. But he also didn't sugarcoat his message to West Virginia fans and his team following the game, and his message was clear – the Mountaineers didn't perform well enough to deserve a victory over the Tigers. The effort they put forth defensively in the final minutes just wasn't good enough.
"Sometimes in life, you don't get what you want; you get what you deserve," Hodge said.