West Virginia closed their regular season on Saturday with a 72-65 win over UCF at the WVU Coliseum.
After months of scenarios and uncertainty, one thing was certain for head coach Darian DeVries — his team was going to the NCAA Tournament.
"Like we told them, let's leave no doubt tonight. And I thought, you know, the first half, we were certainly on our way to doing that. And the second half, you know, it didn't go the way we had planned. But, you know, what I love about this group is they still stayed resilient," DeVries said.
The Mountaineers were led by senior Javon Small who finished the game with 25 points, 19 of them coming in the first half. The Mountaineers led by as many as 27 in the first half, carrying a 22-point lead into the locker room.
The second half was a completely different story though for WVU. UCF would make it a tight ballgame over the final 10 minutes as the Mountaineers struggled on offense.
"You know, our first half in general, defensively, we were pretty good. The second half, we just gave up too many transition points and that was a big piece of it. Then part of it was just our offense got stagnant and now we're playing in transition all the time. And that, you know, that usually is a recipe for disaster. So, but there's a lot to learn there. We just like to keep people entertained right till the end. That's kind of our motto this year," DeVries said.
Small put the final feather in the cap of what was an impressive regular season, and one of the best from a single player in a Mountaineer uniform in some time.
Small finished the game with 25 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds, and DeVries hopes people externally realize how great he has been for WVU this season.
And I hope people really appreciate what they saw this year from Javon. Under the circumstances and things and everything with a new team and new coaches and for him to put together the type of year he had and to do it, you know, tonight again, 25 points, nine assists, just an incredible season for him. One of the best individual seasons I've been around, you know, I've been fortunate to coach," DeVries said.
With the win, WVU finishes Big 12 play at 10-10, and they finish the regular season at 19-12, earning them a bye in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, and likely securing an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
"Our guys could use an extra day to be hones, kind of regroup and, and get our legs back under us and, and get ready for postseason play. Like I told them now, now it's a Big 12 tournament and for sure the NCAA tournament. So, congratulations to this team and all their work. Like we told them, we still got to finish the job, we're not done yet," DeVries said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
