It was almost as brutal of a defeat as this West Virginia team has faced this season, falling to Baylor 74-71 in overtime on Saturday.
WVU head coach Darian DeVries was direct after the game. He was proud of how his team battled and showed resilience despite the final score.
"What I loved like they didn't give into it at all, they didn't give in to, 'hey they're shooting all these free throws we're not.' They didn't give into it, they kept fighting, they kept persevering, and we had a chance to win that game and there was opportunities there again just a little short," DeVries said.
WVU was out-shot 27-17 at the free throw line, including 12-4 in overtime as all of Baylor's points came at the foul line (nine).
The Mountaineers trailed by five at halftime, but an 11-0 run helped give them the lead early in the second half. West Virginia would lead for only 5:39 of the game, but Baylor retook the lead and led by as many as six with 8:24 to play.
WVU would then have to battle in the closing minutes, with the lead trading hands over the final five minutes of the game. Baylor scored just two field goals over the final 4:59 of the game, as WVU's final four points of regulation came at the free throw line.
"I was incredibly proud of their fight. In a hostile environment, really talented team, to come in here and do what they did and continue to stay together, I told them, I just love the way we played in the second half. We were moving it and sharing it and guarding our tails off. I thought we really dug in defensively. Did some good things, made life hard for them," DeVries said.
This is WVU's second single-digit loss in as many games, with both coming down to the final seconds. The Mountaineers have now lost six of their last eight games and return home to face Cincinnati this week.
"It's really tough when you're coming off back-to-backs like that but that's conference basketball. Like I told them, there's nothing that is in front of us that we still can't accomplish. It was a tough loss it's one you'd love to have because these road games are like gold if you can come away with a win we just came up short but now we got to go back home and we got to play a tough Cincinnati team was who's really found themselves these last last couple of games," DeVries said.
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