Darian DeVries didn’t even attempt to hide just how much the road win over Utah meant to his West Virginia team at this stage of a long, challenging season.
The 71-69 win over the Utes put the Mountaineers at 18-12 overall and 9-10 in the Big 12 Conference with a realistic chance to earn a first-round bye in the league tournament depending on what else unfolds.
It also gives West Virginia a sixth quadrant one win and has all but solidified the overall resume for the Mountaineers when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, too.
West Virginia was already considered safely in the field prior to Tuesday night and a quadrant one road win certainly isn’t going to hurt those overall efforts. Especially when you consider the 4-2 record in quadrant two games and no defeats in either quadrant three or four.
“A huge win for us. There’s no way to diminish what this was for our season right now. Quad one win on the road and now we get to go home for a sold out Coliseum for UCF,” he said.
West Virginia had to earn the victory in a hard-fought battle as they fell behind by as many as 12 in the first half even knowing what a win could do for them. It would have been easy to fold at that stage, but that’s when DeVries saw his team punch back.
“I thought they just did a really good job of staying together in the huddles and continuing to fight and continuing to make those little plays,” he said.
That allowed West Virginia to take a one point lead into the half, and then it was a back-and-forth affair with senior point guard Javon Small making critical plays down the stretch. Small first connected on a three-pointer to give the Mountaineers a 61-58 lead and then found Eduaro Andre to push that edge out to five points with just 2:52 left.
After Utah cut the advantage to just 66-64 with 51 seconds remaining, it was Small that had the ball in his hands and took it to the rim where he finished off the backboard. It got a little wild from there, but West Virginia would eventually close the game out and record a big win in the process,
“He’s really risen in big moments for us and tonight was no different,” DeVries said.
And in the process, the head coach believes his team was able to find the confidence and swagger that he wants to see with some critical baskets and stops on defense.
West Virginia now returns home to take on the Knights in what will be their Senior Night in Morgantown. The job isn’t done quite yet with the regular season, but DeVries doesn’t expect focus to be any issue given what is still on the line for the Mountaineers.
“I think they’ll be able to get home and turn the page pretty quickly for the last of what’s been a long 20-game conference schedule,” he said.
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