Taz Sherman Leads Mountaineers in Season-Opening Exhibition Win Over Akron
West Virginia senior guard Taz Sherman led all scorers with 29 points as the Mountaineers handled the Akron Zips 74-59 in the season-opening exhibition win over the Akron Zips Friday night.
"We played well in spurts," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. "Taz was really, really good. The bad was that we didn't continue to play. We let up. I thought our defense early on was pretty good, and then it wasn't any good. I thought we rebounded well early, and then we didn't rebound at all. We must be a whole lot more consistent."
Sherman scored the first seven points of the game, beginning with a midrange jumper, then driving to the basket for a layup before creating space along the right wing and burying a three. He propelled the Mountaineers to a 15-point halftime lead, behind shooting 8-11 from the field, including 2-4 from three-point range for 20 first half points.
Sherman remained hot to open the second half, eventually outscoring the Zips himself with a nine-point burst capped off with three consecutive free throws and Taz was up, 29-26. He went to the bench with 15:13 remaining in the game and did not return, finishing with 29 points and three assists on the night.
West Virginia led by 29 when Sherman left the floor. Then, the Mountaineers offense struggled, scoring just five points in 10 minutes of game time but following a pair of free throws from Dimon Carrigan pushed the WVU lead back up to 21 with five minutes remaining.
"Well, we're up 15, and then we go up by 32. We outscored them by 17 at that point, and Taz was on the floor. (Senior guard) Sean (McNeil) struggled today, but Sean's not gone. I don't think he's going to have a whole lot of days like that. If we get those two guys going, they can't over help them with (sophomore forward) Jalen (Bridges) or (redshirt freshman) Isaiah (Cottrell) because they can both make shots. We can really spread the defense and take the ball to the basket. None of that, to this point, has come to fruition."
Akron dwindled the deficit to 14 with under a minute to play before West Virginia walked away with a 15-point victory.
"We did good in spurts," said Sherman. "We started off really hot especially coming out in the second half. One thing I said at the end of the first half is, 'we have to double this lead,' and then we got up and then kind of let down. Typical tale of last year in some cases. We're just trying to communicate, 'we just can't let up.'"
West Virginia tips off the regular season Tuesday, November 9, versus Oakland at 7:00 pm EST inside the WVU Coliseum.
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