West Virginia gave up their third-highest scoring total of the season in their 86-73 loss to No. 22 BYU on Saturday.
WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert talked about WVU’s defense, Jesse Edwards’ play, as well as the Mountaineers having to overcome mistakes following the loss.
Defense Drowned by Three’s
It was raining three’s for BYU, especially late in the second half. The Mountaineers were down six and five at two separate times late in the second half, but the Cougars continued to have an answer, hitting from three.
BYU made five of their final nine three-pointers over the last 6:02 of the game, answering every Mountaineer run. The Cougars went 13-for-36 from three, with their 13 three-pointers being the second-most WVU has allowed this season.
“I think sometimes we were dropping when we shouldn’t have been dropping and it created a lot of opportunities where there was too much help,” Eilert said of WVU’s defense.
“We were down 17 at one point. We were down 17 and we were fighting and clawing and we cut it to five. A couple of those miraculous three’s, those are daggers for a team’s confidence when you’re trying to make a run like that,” Eilert said.
“At the end of the day, you look at it and we talk about them getting 27 second-chance points and fast break points combined and we got the same number. At the end of the day they make 13 three’s, and we make eight. It doesn’t take a mathematician to say three’s are worth more than two’s.”
Edwards’ Execution
Jesse Edwards scored 16 points and seven rebounds, but the Mountaineers would get burned in the post. Fousseyni Traore scored 24 points and had nine rebounds, while the Cougars scored 38 points in the paint.
Eilert attributed some of the lack of execution by Edwards on defense to him still not being 100 percent healthy following his wrist injury. Edwards was making his second start and playing in just his third game since the injury.
“Jesse’s not 100 percent. When you’re trying to stop a guy of that size and you’re allowed an arm bar, but your wrist is right there. Sure, he’s still trying to protect that wrist and there’s still some pain there. It’s not uncommon, but it’s still where we’re at with it,” Eilert said.
“He gets a couple bounces with his size and strength, he’s going to get it right underneath the rim,” Eilert said of Traore. “Consequently, the question is do we double or not and it’s hard to double a team like that. As well as they pass, they pass that thing right out of there and one more and one more, it’s a three-point shot.”
Overcoming Mistakes
Eilert said that WVU made too many mistakes and they had things that they could’ve controlled better in the loss. Eilert mentioned WVU’s nine turnovers leading to 11 points , as well as BYU’s 19 second chance points.
“To me, it’s 27 easy buckets they got that we can really control. They’re going to make shots, they’re going to make open shots it’s what they do,” Eilert said.
Eilert would continue, referencing that he doesn’t want his team to get too high or too low and they have to minimize the mistakes they make in a game.
“Game of basketball is full of mistakes, there’s mistakes everywhere. The team that does the best job of minimizing those mistakes usually wins. We didn’t do a great job of minimizing mistakes and they took advantage of it. When a team hit’s 13 three’s and 39 points from the three-point line, it’s hard to overcome,” Eilert said.
