If Friday served as a test for how West Virginia's season might go, they would have come nowhere close to passing the test or the class that is the 2024-2025 season.
The Mountaineers headed up north to face rival Pitt in the 191st Backyard Brawl. The Mountaineers would end up on the wrong end of a 86-62 loss to Pitt, giving them their first loss of the season.
Early on, it was the opposite kind of story for both WVU and Pitt. The Mountaineers seemingly couldn't buy a make from the field, while the Panthers couldn't seem to miss.
Pitt started the scoring and held leads of 7-4, 10-6, and 18-8, before they began to pull away.
Leading by eight, Pitt went on a 9-0 run while West Virginia couldn't do anything right offensively. WVU started the game 0-for-8 from beyond the arc, while Pitt started 4-for-8 on their three-pointers.
Pitt's 9-0 run quickly turned into a 15-2 run as Pitt led 35-14 with 7:11 to play in the first half.
WVU's first make from three would come with 4:24 to play in the first half as Jonathan Powell connected from deep. Tucker DeVries would score his first points of the half with 2:47 to play, also hitting from deep.
Pitt took a 44-22 lead into halftime, shooting 51 percent from the field and knocking down six of their 15 three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes. Conversely, WVU made only 33 percent of their baskets in the opening frame, going 2-for-13 from three.
Pitt absollutely dominated the Mountaineers early, out-rebounding them, 24-11, and they held a commanding lead despite having eight turnovers in the first half compared to just four for WVU.
Damian Dunn scored 11 of those points for Pitt, knocking in two field goals from deep as well. No Mountaineer had more than four points at halftime.
Not much would change in the second half as Pitt continued to pull away.
Dunn controlled the half scoring-wise, as he scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
Pitt’s lead opened to as many as 31 as Dunn scored seven in a row for the Panthers, including a three-pointer to push their lead to 62-31 with 13:03 to play.
WVU would cut the deficit to as few as 22 points in the second half but wouldn’t come closer. Tucker DeVries ended up fouling out with 4:20 to play, finishing with six points on 2-for-10 shooting.
Powell would lead West Virginia in scoring with 16 points. As a team, the Mountaineers made 38.7 percent of their shots from the field, going 6-for-29 from three.
Pitt shot 48 percent from the field on the night, including going 10-for-27 from three.
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