WVU Wins a Nail-Biter in Salt Lake City

West Virginia took on the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City this evening facing off former Interim Head Coach, Josh Eilert. This game was nothing short of a nail-biter.

West Virginia came out hot as Javon Small put the team on the board with a mid-range jump shot assisted by a Sincere Harris steal. But it was the Utes who came out stronger. Between the elite three-point shooting from Gabe Madsen, the Utah Utes found themselves with a 13-6 lead over the Mountaineers. Coming out of the break, West Virginia went on a 7-0 scoring run aided by big threes from Joseph Yesufu and Jonathan Powell.

Despite being in what seemed like an eternal cold spell WVU finally find their rhythm as they went on another scoring run, ending out the half scoring all five of their last field goal attempts. Everything seemed to be going the way of the Mountaineers to close out the half, that was until the16 seconds mark of the first half hit. Eduardo Andre went down and was seen writhing in pain and bleeding from his nasal area and left the game shortly after.

With his status unknown the West Virginia Mountaineers lead by one going into the half. This was a huge confidence boost for the Mountaineers as they were down by 12 at one point. However, DeVries’s resilient team battled back and went into the half leading 30-29.

Javon Small went into the halftime, scoring 9 points and dishing out three assists. Amani Hansberry contributed on both ends of the ball, boasting 5 points and hauling in 5 rebounds. Finally, it was Joseph Yesufu who shot 50 percent from three, paired with heavy contributions from the bench that enabled West Virginia to make it a close game.

However, the Mountaineers could not afford to put their effort on the back-burners as Utah opened up the second half with four unanswered points. After suffering a scary injury in the first half, Eduardo Andre shockingly returned to the action and managed to get himself on the board just as quickly as he was able to return. But the Utes were not going to give up, after two clutch three-pointers by Mike Sharavjamts and tough baskets down low, the Utes found themselves with a 44-38 lead over the Mountaineers.

It became quickly apparent to the Mountaineers that if they wanted to win, they needed to get everybody involved. Toby Okani and Kj Tenner came off the bench and scored back-to-back shots down low to bring the Ute’s lead back within four. But Amani Hansberry and Jonathan Powell fought their way in transition, and after a tough and-one finish by Hansberry and an emphatic slam by Javon Small, the Mountaineers had their deficit within one.

After a long back-and-forth battle between the two teams, the Mountaineers pulled ahead with a Javon Small three-pointer and an alley-oop to Toby Okani to cap off a 7-0 run. Giving the Mountaineers a 63-58 lead with two and a half minutes to go. TobyOkani fouled out. yet again, both teams battled back and forth, and it looked like the Mountaineers were going to win the game with a comfortable lead. That was until Utah tried to spoil the fun and scored 5 points in four seconds.

Now the Mountaineers had one-second remaining, and their chances at making the March Madness Tournament, hanging in the balance. Thankfully, their efforts were just enough as West Virginia would win the game after a pair of Sincere Harris free throws with a final score of 71-69.

The Mountaineers did not perform very well tonight. They shot 35% from three-point range, making only eight out of the twenty-six total shots attempted. In addition, the Mountaineers gave up a lot of fouls that led to thirty-two total free throws for Utah. The Mountaineers were lucky as it is incredibly rare to shoot half as many free throws and give up thirty-two free throws in return and still be able to come out on top. Yet it was Javon Small’s 18 point performance paired with Amani Hansberry’s 12 point performance that just pushed West Virginia over the hump.

The Mountaineers look to keep their tournament hopes alive and to close out their season on a high note as they travel back to Morgantown for their final regular season game, and final home game as they are set to face off against the Knights of UCF.