MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 19 West Virginia goes for its fourth straight victory and seventh over the last eight games when the Mountaineers welcome Central Florida to Hope Coliseum for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. matchup airing on ESPN+.
WVU (20-5, 10-3) looks to stay in the thick of the race for a Big 12 Conference regular season championship and prolong its series dominance with the Knights, having won each of the previous four contests.
Above, all else, however, is an internal goal team wide.
“We’re trying to get better. That’s the goal,” head coach Mark Kellogg said. “We want to continue to get better. We want to practice better and I want to teach great habits, so when we play, it shines. You can’t practice at a certain level and then when the lights come on, expect that you’re going to play at a different level than you prepare in practice. That’s priority A.”
Kellogg rightfully likes much of what he’s seen from his team over the last month, a stretch that includes six wins over seven contests since a last-second one-point loss to TCU.
Most recently, the Mountaineers had their way Saturday in an 87-68 victory over Arizona.
Yet the Wildcats managed to shoot 52 percent (31 for 60), and it was largely the result of 29 turnovers that allowed West Virginia to pull away.
“I just want them to lock in a little bit more defensively,” Kellogg said. ”The turnovers are great, but teams are shooting it at a high percentage a little too often against us, and it doesn’t have to be feast or famine. It doesn’t need to be that.”
Each of West Virginia’ top four scorers — Gia Cooke, Kierra ‘MeMe’ Wheeler, Jordan Harrison and Sydney Shaw — was in double figures and the quartet combined for 60 points, while the latter trio was responsible for nine of 10 three-pointers against Arizona.
“Coach gets on us about having a full game on offense and defense, hitting our goals and reaching marks that we want,” Cooke said. “Fewer turnovers and things like that. We have to put a full game together. It can’t be good offense and bad defense. We have to have a full game on offense and defense, in the press getting steals, sharing the ball on offense and moving. We’re slowly working towards it with more practice, more film, things like that. We’ll be ready.”
UCF (10-13, 2-10) is tied with Arizona for second-to-last in the Big 12 and enters the matchup on a five-game losing streak.
Leah Harmon, a 5-foot-6 guard, leads the Knights in scoring at 15.7 points, but has missed the last three games due to injury. Harmon recorded double-figure scoring in 14 straight games to start the season, a streak that ended with a 38-point outburst in a loss to Kansas.
Khyala Ngodu is the only other player averaging double figures at 10.6 points to go with 6.8 rebounds, but the 6-3 junior was out injured during the team’s loss at Oklahoma State last Saturday.
This is the first of two meetings over the next two weeks between WVU and UCF.
The Mountaineers are a half game behind Baylor (21-4, 10-2) in the league standings, but own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Bears, which are back in action Thursday against TCU (21-4, 9-3).
“There is no reason to standings watch or see who is playing who and who might drop games,” Kellogg said. “We have to get better and focus really on us. If we do that, we’ll be there and have a chance when it’s all said and done.”