MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Senior center Harlan Obioha was monumental in Thursday’s 71-49 WVU basketball Backyard Brawl victory, recording 19 points and six rebounds, both team-highs.
You don’t have to even look at the stat sheet to see how Obioha impacted the game, as Pitt head coach Jeff Capel put it bluntly in his postgame press conference.
“He kicked our butt tonight,” Capel admitted.
When asked what he liked about his matchup, Obioha also gave a simple answer.
“The front of their jersey said Pitt on it. Whenever I see that, it’s really just red,” Obioha said in the postgame press conference.
Obioha was aggressive on offense, finishing 8-9 on the floor. He credited his close-shot success to looking to finish and not for a foul.
“I think just being physical and not looking for a foul, just looking to score it is the biggest thing, and then doing my work early. I think those are the two biggest things,” Obioha said.
Obioha also finished with two fouls, the second-least in his four games this season and finished with a season-high 30 minutes played. After finishing the first two games with a total of seven fouls, Obioha said the coaches have worked with him on limiting his foul trouble.
“I think that was one of the bigger things that the coaches have been on me about after the first couple games is they need me to be on the floor and I can’t be on the floor if I’m in foul trouble,” Obioha said. “So I think just continuing to execute that game plan was big for me tonight.”
While Obioha credited his teammates and the coaches’ game plan afterward, senior guard Jasper Floyd spoke up and said he was being “humble,” and that Obioha was confident ahead tipoff.
“He’s being very humble right now,” Floyd said. “They are a good team and they have good players, but before the game he said that he was licking his chops and he was going to eat tonight. So that was not surprising.”
Obioha will have another chance to boost his team when the Mountaineers take the court again at 7 p.m. on Monday night when they host Lafayette.
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