West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries knew his team had a chance to get a win on Saturday against BYU.
The Mountaineers led in the first half and controlled the pace of the game early. Then at the under four timeout, a switch flipped. That switch never flipped back as BYU coasted to a 77-56 win.
"Very similar to the Texas Tech game we had really controlled the first 17 minutes of the first half and we had actually come out of the timeout with three minutes to go like reminding them about Texas Tech we've got to face this half off with defensively and making sure we get good shots to finish off the half and unfortunately just didn't happen," DeVries said.
For the second time in seven days, WVU was on the road against a ranked opponent and held a lead. For the second time in seven days, that lead did not last until halftime and the Mountaineers were then routed in the second half.
BYU had their way with West Virginia offensively in the second half. The Cougars made five 3-pointers, while they also scored 28 points in the paint, and seven more points at the free throw line.
"They went to more [Richie] Saunders, driving it in the second half, with a little bigger physical, and he was able to get to the rim a little bit more and finish, and then that started the floodgates a little bit," DeVries said.
The Mountaineers tried to battle one-on-one in the post to try and stay close with BYU's shooters on the outside. In the end though, that plan didn't work as BYU finished the game scoring 46 points in the paint, and outrebounding WVU 43-32.
"We knew we had to try to play one-on-one in the post, because of all their shooting, you know, the first half we did okay, we gave up a couple, but we were willing to live with that," DeVries said.
Overall, DeVries pointed to his defense's production in the second half, saying they didn't have the same edge they had in the first half. BYU shot 60.6 percent from the field in the second half, going 5-for-11 from beyond the arc.
"I just thought defensively, just that second half it was it was very similar to it just didn't have quite the same edge we had in the first half and kind of that toughness and keeping them out of there that we had in that first half and then then it started to get away from then the missed shots lead to transition and now you're now you're in trouble," DeVries said.
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