While Wednesday afternoon's matchup between the No. 19 West Virginia Mountaineers (11-1) and the Virginia Tech Hokies (8-5) was not a pretty one by any stretch, that is just how West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins prefers it.
Pressuring the hapless Hokies throughout the game will their full-court man defense, the Mountaineers forced 22 turnovers while garnering 10 steals and 25 points off of turnovers to pace an 88-63 blowout win over Virginia Tech.
West Virginia also controlled the rebounding advantage, outboarding the Hokies by a margin of 42-24 while shooting an impressive 50% from the field despite hitting just four of their 16 three-point attempts.
Their full-court pressure wore down Virginia Tech as the game progressed, with the Hokies committed costly errors underneath their own basket while struggling to even inbound the ball at times.
Mountaineers guard Javon Carter hit his first eight shots of the game to lead all scorers with 18 points while reserve guard Jaysean Paige came off of the bench to score 17 points and grab five rebounds.
West Virginia forward Jonathan Holton contributed a critical performance to aid his team's effort on the boards, grabbing 13 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass, to accompany his 12 points.
Guard Tarik Phillip also had 12 points for the Mountaineers.
The Hokies were undermanned in the absence of freshman guard Chris Clarke (10.5 points, 7.4 rebounds per game) and it showed.
The team's third-leading scorer, guard Justin Bibbs, was limited to just 1-of-4 shooting from the field en route to a five-point performance while guard Seth Allen (10 points) was forced to take a seat for much of the first half with foul trouble.
Reserve forward Shane Henry lead the Hokies with 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting while big man Zach LeDay added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Virginia Tech was able to keep the contest close for much of the first half, however, West Virginia was able to strangle hold of the momentum heading into the halftime break.
Leading 41-36 with 38 seconds remaining, an and-one finish in the lane by Carter provided the Mountaineers with some life before a jumper by Phillip sent the team into the locker room leading by 10.
Then, to start the second half, Carter knocked down a three from the top of the key before forward Esa Ahmad banked home a layup to push the lead to 51-36. Holton then scored off of an offensive rebound to increase the advantage to 53-36.
The Hokies were able to lessen the deficit to 55-39, however, the Mountaineers proceeded to ramp up the defensive pressure to put the game out of reach.
Following a layup by forward Elijah Macon, guard Daxter Miles Jr. stole Bibbs' subsequent inbounds pass, knocking it to Holton for a layup. Then, West Virginia forward Nathan Adrian caused yet another Hokies turnover, flipping it to Carter to extend the lead to 61-39 with 16:22 remaining.