MORGANTOWN — The 3-point line was a boom-and-a-bust type of place inside Hope Coliseum on Sunday, and No. 13 Texas Tech also turned it into an almost unheard of source of frustration for WVU guard Honor Huff.

What exactly do we mean? For starters, the Red Raiders walked out of Morgantown with a 70-63 victory in a game they led for more than 39 minutes and never trailed.

The boom was all Texas Tech (17-6, 7-3 Big 12), which went an amazing 8 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half and finished with 13 makes behind the arc. It’s the second-most threes allowed by the Mountaineers (15-9, 6-5) this season, with only Xavier’s 16 during the Charleston Classic back in November accounting for more.

“We were just moving the ball really well,” said Texas Tech guard Donovan Atwell, who had four 3-pointers and 15 points. “My teammates know how to find the open man. I feel like we have so many offensive threats that it’s hard for teams to stop everybody. If you double J.T. (Toppin), he knows how to pass the ball out to find guys. Us moving the ball really well just got me good shots.”

Texas Tech, which came into the game as the top 3-point shooting team in the Big 12 and also as the leaders in 3-point attempts in the league, didn’t do anything to hurt those numbers. The Red Raiders’ 13 threes outnumbered their two-point baskets (10), a stat you don’t see very often.

What Texas Tech’s defense did to Huff, WVU’s sharpshooter from deep, was also almost unheard of. For the first time in 53 games, Huff didn’t make a single shot from beyond the arc. The nation’s leader in 3-pointers a year ago at Chattanooga, Huff finished 0 for 8 from the field and 0 for 6 from 3-point range. He finished with six points, all from free throws.

“These two guys were unbelievable guarding the 3-point line and just our help defense,” Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland said of Atwell and freshman guard Jaylen Petty. “These two guys playing defense, especially Jaylen on Huff, to keep him from making a field goal tonight, is really impressive because of his motor and his skill. (Huff is) one of the best 3-point shooters in college basketball, and Jaylen deserves a ton of credit for the way he competed.”

Huff’s day only adds to his recent roller coaster shooting story. He went 1 for 13 from the field in a loss against Baylor last week, but followed that up with a four-minute stretch against Cincinnati, in which he scored 14 points.

In all, the WVU guard is connecting on just 29% (28 of 97) of his 3-pointers since the start of Big 12 play. Over the last three games, that percentage is down to 17%.

“I thought Jaylen Petty did a great job on him,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. “He’s probably one of the few guys who can run with Honor. He did a great job, and they were aggressive in their ball-screen coverage.

“The way Honor has been guarded lately, he’s primarily been guarded that way the whole year. The biggest difference is how teams have been guarding our other players.”

On this day, Texas Tech didn’t have to worry a whole lot about spreading out to get to WVU’s other shooters, because the Mountaineers didn’t have any.

WVU finished just 2 of 22 from the 3-point line. Treysen Eaglestaff, WVU’s other leading outside scoring threat, didn’t score a single point until there were 51 seconds remaining in the first half. He finished 1 of 5 from beyond the arc and was held to just five points.

Making matters worse, the Mountaineers were just as bad at the foul line, going 13 of 23. 

And somehow, there were still moments when WVU made this an interesting game. Texas Tech held a 15-point advantage with 13:17 remaining, but WVU cut it down to seven 10 minutes later.

Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson – 13 points and 11 assists – killed that momentum with yet another 3-pointer.

WVU had another opportunity to cut the lead down to six with 1:55 remaining, but Chance Moore went 0 for 2 at the foul line. Most of the Mountaineers’ momentum came from the inside with Brenen Lorient, who scored 21 points on drives to the basket and post moves in the paint. Harlan Obioha added nine points and seven rebounds, as WVU beat up Texas Tech on the inside with a 38-20 advantage in points in the paint.

Toppin led the Red Raiders with 22 points and nine rebounds. The reigning Big 12 Player of the Year and his force on the inside, Hodge said, is what allowed Texas Tech to be so successful from 3-point range.

“The reason why they shoot threes is because of J.T. Toppin. That’s why they shoot threes,” Hodge said. “He forces you to make decisions. Are you going to play him one-on-one all night long? It’s not always a bad decision. Then, Christian’s ability to shoot threes off the dribble. That leverage between those two is what makes Atwell so good and Petty. To their credit, they really constructed that team well, and when those guys had their opportunities to step into shots, they made them tonight.”