Early on, the Mountaineers found all their scoring from behind the three point arc, hitting their first four deep shots of the day. Marquette's first half success came driving the basketball. While the Golden Eagles stagnated in the halfcourt early, by the middle of the half they realized the path to the basket worth taking was the direct route. The Golden Eagles pushed the tempo and began scoring consistently scored in transition. West Virginia's big men have struggled getting back, and have generally been exposed by the dribble drive.
While it's good to see the Mountaineers hitting their shots early, the defensive end of things has been struggling. This Marquette team isn't afraid of playing aggressively and WVU has had trouble with dynamic guards this season. John Flowers went to the bench early in the half picking up two fouls early.
Turnovers also killed the Mountaineers early and a lot of good possesions were sunk by junor varisty mistakes. Joe Mazulla gave the ball up a couple of possesions in a row, and West Virginia dug themselves a small hole. As usual, West Virginia's defense kept things close and the Mountaineers were always a shot away, most times a long jumper. It was then that West Virginia stormed back into the lead on a 10-0 run highlighted by deep threes from Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant.
On the half's final play, Truck put the ball on the deck and went straight to the rack and scored the kind of falling lay-up that he often whiffs on. In the last five minutes of the half, the Mountaineers finally came alive and go into the locker room up 7.