by: Justin Walker
With their NCAA Tournament hopes on the line, the West Virginia Men’s basketball team traveled to Provo, Utah to take on the #25 BYU Cougars in Big 12 action. After a close and competitive first half, one in which the Mountaineers were able to hold the high-powered BYU offense to only 25 points, the second half was a much different story. The Cougars outscored WVU 52-37 in the second half and would go on to win by a final score of 77-56.
The lack of size down low really hampered WVU as BYU center, Fousseyni Traore, led all scorers with 20 points. Traore was able to do pretty much whatever he wanted in the paint. He shot 9 of 13 from the floor and pulled down ten rebounds to earn himself a double-double on the night. BYU junior forward Richie Saunders also had a good night for the Cougars. He was very aggressive with the ball in his hands, especially in the second half, and ended with 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting. Potential NBA lottery pick, Egor Demin, had 15 points on the night for Coach Kevin Young’s BYU squad. He made 2 of 3 from beyond the three-point line.
Javon Small was the only Mountaineer in double figures as he was able to muster 15 points on a night that he struggled to get into any type of rhythm. Small was only 5 of 14 from the floor and 3 of 9 from three-point range. He was below his season average with only two assists, because his teammates were also not able to find their shot consistently. As a team, West Virginia shot only 33.3% from the floor overall and 29.6% from three. The Mountaineers were also beaten up on the glass by the Cougars. WVU only pulled down 32 total rebounds versus BYU’s 43. This is an area where Darian DeVries’ Mountaineer squad continues to struggle.
Despite this lopsided loss, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has West Virginia squarely in the NCAA Tournament as what appears to be a #10 seed. With what appears to be a weak bubble, along with the fact BYU was a top 25 team who was playing in their own arena, this loss did not appear to do any damage to WVU’s hopes of making it into the Big Dance in Darian DeVries’ first season at the helm.
The Mountaineers will need to put on a better performance in their next game, however if they want to stay off the NCAA Tournament bubble. They will stay in the state of Utah as they take on the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City. It will be the second meeting of the season for the Mountaineers and the Utes. West Virginia defeated Utah by a score of 72-61 when they faced them in Morgantown on February 8.
Despite recently firing their head coach, Utah is coming off a 99-73 win over Arizona State. Utah, ironically, is being led by former WVU Interim Head Coach and Bob Huggins Assistant, Josh Eilert. Utah named Eilert the Interim Head Coach after firing Craig Smith on February 24. This is an important game for the Mountaineers if they want to get to that 18th win of the season and maybe give themselves a little bit of breathing room as they try to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
