MORGANTOWN — It began with a little give-and-go between Honor Huff and Brennen Lorient. Seconds later, Jasper Floyd’s mini homecoming was celebrated greatly, as the WVU point guard handed the Mountaineers their biggest road win of the season.

Floyd, a native of Tampa. Fla – about an 80-minute drive from the UCF campus in Orlando – nailed his biggest 3-pointer of the season with 1:47 remaining in the game Saturday, as the Mountaineers erased a 14-point deficit in the second half to pull out a gutsy 74-67 victory over the Knights inside Addition Financial Arena.

Floyd’s shot came on what was a weird and slow-moving possession for WVU (16-9, 7-5 Big 12). It began with Floyd turning down a run at the basket in transition, only to set things up by yelling at Lorient to post up.

Lorient, also a Florida native from Ocala, did just that and took in Floyd’s pass, but didn’t look to score. He instead took a couple of dribbles out to the side and handed the ball off to Huff, who quickly flipped it right back to Lorient.

Lorient now had a path to the rim, but UCF’s 7-foot-2 center John Bol was in the way, so Lorient passed the ball out to Floyd, who was wide open for a 3-point shot.

Floyd didn’t hesitate. The ball barely grazed the rim as it fell through.

“Jasper hit some monster shots down the stretch and played tremendous defense,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said on his radio postgame show.

Floyd’s shot gave WVU a 66-62 lead, and all of a sudden, the Mountaineers are road warriors. For the second road game in a row, the Mountaineers erased a 14-point deficit to pull out a victory away from Morgantown. It also happened against Cincinnati on Feb. 5. This time, UCF (17-7, 6-6) held a 52-38 lead with 11:27 remaining.

The Mountaineers responded defensively by holding the Knights to just four points over the next five minutes of play.

“We’ve been in these situations before and we do believe in our defense,” Hodge said. “Our guys were in the huddle saying, ‘We can shut people’s water off when we need to.’ They really have got to the point where they believe that.”

On the offensive side, Lorient got going by scoring on a post-up play and then added a bucket in transition. He scored an and-one play in the post to cut UCF’s lead down to 54-49 with 8:43 remaining.

Lorient then scored, maybe, his weirdest basket of the season. He had the ball in the paint and was twisting and turning in an effort to get himself open. He fell to the ground while taking a difficult shot, one that came off the rim right into the hands of teammate Chance Moore.

Moore took a shot that hit off the top of the backboard, but Lorient picked himself off the ground, grabbed the offensive rebound and scored it.

“I don’t even know what happened on that possession,” Hodge said. “The ball was everywhere and (Lorient) scooped it.”

The rest of the game belonged to Floyd, who finished with 17 points and five rebounds, with an assist from Huff, who rebounded from a tough 0 for 8 shooting performance against Texas Tech to score a game-high 21 points.

Floyd was 3 of 5 from 3-point range. He nailed one with 6:28 remaining to tie the game at 56. Huff gave the Mountaineers the lead for good with two free throws at the 2:37 mark, which set up Floyd’s biggest 3-pointer of the season.

UCF, which played without the services of starter Jamichael Stillwell who injured his ankle in practice prior to the game, was held to its second-lowest point total of the season. Stillwell averages 12.3 points and 8.0 rebounds per game and the Knights could have used his presence on the boards. WVU finished with a 37-31 advantage on the glass.

Moore kept WVU alive in the first half, in which he scored eight of his 12 points. Lorient finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

The bigger picture is now WVU has four Quad 1 wins under its belt with a home game coming up Wednesday against Utah. The Utes are struggling and have just one Big 12 win on the season heading into today’s road game at Cincinnati.

It’s a solid opportunity for WVU to earn their eighth conference win of the season and maintain their spot in the top half of a top-heavy Big 12.

“We got to that desperation mode that this team can get to,” Hodge said. “Not everybody can get to it. Not everybody has a desperation switch.”