It just wasn't West Virginia's night.
The Mountaineers suffered a 65-57 home loss to Arizona State on Tuesday, just days after taking down No. 2 Iowa State.
WVU head coach Darian DeVries was not pleased with how his team played on either side of the ball, especially in the second half.
"I thought this was a game that we had talked about that there’s a lot of different ways. They have multiple guys that can come at you and hurt you, and they put you in some tough spots," DeVries said.
The Mountaineers scored with 2:20 to play in the first half but did not record a made field goal until the 12:52 mark of the second half. Still, when Eduardo Andre made a layup to record the first made field goal for the Mountaineers, WVU trailed only by eight.
West Virginia would never get the game closer than four points the rest of the way as when Arizona State needed a big bucket, they got one.
"Our defense has been really good all year. And that second half, when our offense was struggling, we had opportunities to crawl back into the game with our defense, and really for the first time all year we weren't able to get stops at the times we needed to and so that was disappointing from our end because we know that's what we have to hang our hat on and we weren't able to get that accomplished tonight," DeVries said.
West Virginia was out-rebounded 22-13 in the second half, while the Sun Devils also had 30 points in the paint in the final 20 minutes.
DeVries said they knew Arizona State's size was going to be a problem, but he felt it affected his team more on the offensive end.
"I thought there [were] times their length at the rim did bother us even though it didn't result in a lot of blocked shots. But I thought their presence was there and did a nice job of making things difficult at the rim," DeVries said.
It was a struggle offensively for West Virginia not only in the second half but all game. The Mountaineers recorded their worst shooting performance from both the field and from beyond the arc so far this season, shooting 31 percent from the field, and going 4-for-29 from three.
DeVries said that sometimes happens in the Big 12 but that's when you have to be able to rely upon your defense.
"That's why we need to rely on our defense. If you give up 61 percent in the second half, you're probably not winning a game. On the nights where you don't shoot it well, that's how we have to win those games. There was an opportunity to do that and we weren't able to get that done," DeVries said.
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