West Virginia suffered a blowout loss at the hands of Texas Tech Saturday afternoon in Lubbock.
Everything seemed to fall apart after finding themselves up 24-15 with 8 minutes left in the first half. Foul trouble for the Mountaineers allowed the Red Raiders to take a 3-point halftime lead, to which they never looked back, winning by a final score of 73-51.
Head Coach Darian DeVries did not want to point fingers but made it clear foul trouble played a huge role in the loss.
“I thought we were in pretty good control with about 8-10 minutes left (in the first half). Javon got his second foul and that was a big turning point in that first half for us.” DeVries said.
Small went 3-14 from the field with 10 points in the loss. West Virginia has struggled when the opposing team focuses its attention on stopping Small. Texas Tech tried to turn Small into a facilitator and not a scorer, and it worked.
“I thought he got downhill pretty good for us. That is what we want him to do. Be in attack mode and I thought he was aggressive in that way,” said Darian DeVries when asked about how he believed Small performed.
The rest of the season feels like postseason games for WVU, who are currently sitting as one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament. “For us it has always been win or lose, learn from it and move on. We got TCU up next and that will be our focus,” said DeVries.
The Mountaineers will battle the Horned Frogs on Feb. 25 at 9:00 p.m. ET in what is the biggest must-win of the season thus far for WVU.
