WVU can’t hit a shot at the start of the game, falls behind by double-figures, rallies, fades and then finds some sort of a phone booth in which everything changes and the deficit disappears.

Devin Ebanks calls it a “repeating story.” Joe Mazzulla said the season is “a tale of two halves almost every game.” Truck Bryant has no explanations or solutions apart from the obvious ones. These are the 2009-10 Mountaineers, who on Saturday found their way into a big hole, but then found a way out with defense, rebounding and shooting.

It also found a double-digit deficit for the fifth time in seven games, but followed the path all the way back for the second time after nearly completing the comeback against Notre Dame and Syracuse in the same stretch.

The Mountaineers are outscoring opponents by 134 points in the second half this season and by 73 in the past seven games. Over that run, WVU has been outscored by 14 in the first half – and that’s skewed by a two-point halftime lead at South Florida after trailing by 11 early.

“You obviously hope some consistency comes into play soon,” point guard Joe Mazzulla. “We’ve got to stop putting ourselves in a hole. We can’t let them go on an 8-0 run to start the game and then come out and start the second half with our own 9-0 run. We know we can do it, but we just have to find a way how.”

In all, that’s a pretty strong win and one WVU needed. At home. Non-conference. CBS. Sold-out gym. Hook Shot Hundley. If the Mountaineers lose that game, and do so in familiar fashion, it could have been difficult to expect the crowd and the juice we witnessed Saturday — and a few players said that, too.

Instead, the second half was a treat. Nice offense, both individually and as a team, and some overlooked defense by Devin Ebanks, who again didn’t have his offense, but gave Evan Turner fits after halftime.

Again, it’s a bad and certainly dangerous habit, but despite slow starts and spotty shooting WVU is able to avoid disasters. Free throws, rebounds, even inbounding the ball and crossing halfcourt, the things that need to happen seem to happen.

And Saturday’s win came with an interesting sidebar. The bench, which was so good against Marshall and has been big in big moments this year, was hardly used and/or needed.

Joe Mazzulla played 21 minutes, but Casey Mitchell, Cam Thoroughman and John Flowers, who was great against Marshall, played eight, four and four minutes and none in the second half. Dalton Pepper, who’d become one of the top offensive options, saw just five minutes.

When things got hectic and WVU needed to rally and then sustain to win a game it needed to win, it was basically a six-player performance.