When true freshman Jonathan Powell signed with West Virginia, he wasn’t sure of the role he would have in his first season in Morgantown.
The 6-foot-6 guard knew that it was basically a whole new deal and playing time was open but he never expected to play the critical role that he has throughout the season.
“You had to go and compete and I think I did a great job of that over the summer and throughout the season. But I mean, I’ve accepted this role and know everything that comes with it,” he said.
Powell wrapped up the first regular season of his college career averaging 8.3 points and 3.2 rebounds, while hitting 35-percent of his three-point attempts. The Ohio native played the second most minutes on the roster and his 63 made threes were only behind senior point guard Javon Small.
Powell was the third leading scorer on the team and understood that he had to play his part if the team was going to experience success especially after the injuries to Tucker DeVries and Jayden Stone which limited the pair to just a combined eight games.
It’s been a season of maturation for Powell, who initially signed with Xavier out of high school before requesting his release and ending up in Morgantown. There were ups and downs like with any freshman playing in a high major league but the important thing was his confidence never wavered.
“My teammates and coaches all put that confidence in me just to go out there and play my game all year,” Powell said.
Never was that on display more than in the second half against UCF where Powell scored 12 of his total 15 points and was 4-6 from three. The Mountaineers had let a 27-point lead evaporate with inconsistent play and at two different times it was Powell that hit a big shot to stretch out the lead.
The first came after the Knights had cut the score to 64-58 with five minutes remaining and Powell was able to hit a three on the next possession to push the advantage back out to nine. After another UCF run to trim the score to just 67-64 with 2:04 left, it was Powell again that canned a three-pointer after an offensive rebound on a missed free throw to all but end the game with 1:16 remaining.
“What I love about Jonathan is he continues to stay confident in himself and we stay confident in him. Like we’ve talked about all year. He’s put in the work and you get that next one. Go ahead and let it fly,” head coach Darian DeVries said. “And he did that. A couple huge ones in that second half.”
That likely doesn’t happen without Powell getting that on the floor experience throughout the course of the year giving him a comfort level to let the ball go even in those tight, late-game situations. That helped to avoid him being passive when the opportunities to shoot the ball were there.
“He certainly knows that he's got the green light from our perspective. And you need to have that type of confidence in a late game situation,” DeVries said.
And now with the schedule turning to postseason play, the importance of Powell maintaining that mentality will be critical for the success of this West Virginia team.
It sounds obvious but when others are scoring around point guard Javon Small it makes the Mountaineers that much more difficult to deal with for opposing teams.
“Yeah, he better not lose any confidence because what we're about to get into we’re going to need it, but yeah, I mean, he's a shooter,” Small 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
