West Virginia appeared to have the opportunity to pull away from BYU on Tuesday night.
Two teams who came into the game with identical records, the Mountaineers took a 6-point lead with 6:33 to play.
BYU called a timeout and out of the timeout the Cougars went on a 9-0 run, and ended the game on a 17-7 run to hold off West Virginia, 73-69.
"They got a really good team. And as we talked, I thought first half defensively, we played really well and when you hold them at 35%, that's a really good half of basketball defensively. And then second half, we were able to kind of get our offense going. But unfortunately, we weren't able to slow them down at all and kind of gave them whatever they wanted," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
On BYU's 9-0 run, the Cougars got an and-one out of the timeout, then a steal as WVU was sloppy with the basketball and that led to a free throw. BYU then knocked down a 3-pointer to take the lead, before a layup put the Cougars ahead by three.
That sequence, along with others throughout the second half, is what stood out to DeVries. The Cougars finished with 11 points off turnovers in the second half, while the Cougars shot 5-for-14 from beyond the arc.
"Felt like we were just trading baskets for a long, long time and then you let a team like that hang around and all of a sudden, they're gonna make some and they're a good team, good players. So they were able to make enough to get that push and take the lead, and I thought we had a few opportunities there late, some couple open threes that didn't go down for us. But again, if our defense had kept us where we needed it to be, those threes, you don't wanna have it come down to that. So that part was disappointing," DeVries said.
No shot for BYU was bigger than a 3-pointer from Egor Demin as the shot clock expired to put the Cougars in front 68-65 with 3:48 to play.
"That's basketball sometimes. We guarded great, they hit a long one, huge shot at a big time in the game. But again, that's why you can't let it come down to those type of plays. You'd like to see them miss that, but that unfortunately didn't happen," DeVries said.
Part of the second half struggles from the Mountaineers were due to their lack of discipline, DeVries said. Most notably, it was overrunning while pressuring, and letting guards get downhill towards the rim with ease at times.
"I thought for us defensively, we got too aggressive and that ball pressure was what we needed and that's who we are. But you also have to be disciplined with it so that you're not at 30 feet and now you're getting driven by and now they're playing four on five and we gave that too, too, too many times in that second half," DeVries said.
DeVries made sure to point out it wasn't a lack of effort, but just a lack of sticking to their assignment on defense for West Virginia.
"It's just those little discipline things that I thought we made some critical mistakes on tonight that really cost us, especially at crucial times. Whether it was an offensive rebound, or a straight line drive, or leaving our feet on a shot fake at 28 feet. Those are all the things that we stress every day, that is winning and losing, especially in tight games. And tonight, it wasn't a lack of effort by any means," DeVries said.
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