Texas Tech's Ronald Ross waged his campaign for homecoming king, but West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle crashed the coronation.
Ross, a native of New Mexico, put up 16 points - 10 of them in the second half - but it wasn't enough as the Red Raiders lost to the Mountaineers, 65-60.
Pittsnogle scored 22 points on 7-for-13 shooting and snagged eight rebounds. The 6-foot-11-inch junior ruined Ross's homecoming when he made two free throws with 17 seconds left.
The icing-on-the-cake free throws came after Texas Tech senior Devonne Giles missed a lay-up with 31 seconds left in the game and 32 seconds left on the shot clock. After the missed lay-up and a West Virginia defensive rebound, the Red Raiders let the Mountaineers run off 14 seconds before fouling Pittsnogle and sending him to the free-throw line to close out the game.
"Coach told me to think about my wife," Pittsnogle said about his two free throws. "He really cheered me up. After that, I didn't really think about much else."
Ross said he enjoyed his return to The Pit, where the Red Raiders' senior won state championships in 1999 and 2001 as a player at Hobbs High School.
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"It was great, you know," he said. "Over here, The Pit is really one of the greatest basketball atmospheres in the country, and just to be able to come and play in front of all the fans from Lubbock and just people from the state of New Mexico. It was really great just to be back."
West Virginia's Mike Gansey said he wasn't sweating Ross's homecoming performance, though he thought Ross might steal the show a little bit.
"He had a bunch of steals and a couple nice dunks, but I knew us as a team would come together and try to pull it off in the end," Gansey said. "That's the way we are. We're such a good team. Everyone steps up every night."
Ross had four steals as the Red Raiders forced the Mountaineers into 18 turnovers, but it was West Virginia's defense that proved to be the difference in the game.
"We turn the ball over a little bit," Mountaineers' head coach John Beileine said. "But we don't throw it to the other team very often, and we threw it to them a lot today. I think our defense was excellent, and I think it allowed us to stay in the game when we couldn't get much going offensively."
Ross, a first team All-Big 12 player, was ice cold in the first half, going 3-for-11 from the field for six points. The Red Raiders kept the game tied at halftime, though, thanks to Giles' 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting.
That help from Giles disappeared in the second half as the 6-foot-8-inch post played only seven minutes due to foul trouble.
Giles' time on the bench gave Pittsnogle space to exploit the Red Raiders' defense from everywhere on the court. Pittsnogle hit two jumpers, had two lay-ins and nailed six straight free throws for 15 second-half points.
Junior guard Patrick Beileine, who had 10 points and four assists, said West Virginia is doing so well because no one is noticing them.
"We're not one of those powerhouses, Dukes or North Carolinas, yet," the younger Beileine said. "But we like to be under the radar. We just got hot at the right time."
