West Virginia understands that with the injuries on the roster the margins are small.
The Mountaineers were already without senior forward Tucker DeVries and guard Jayden Stone, but sophomore forward Amani Hansberry was injured against Mercyhurst leaving an already thin depth situation even thinner.
West Virginia was able to outlast the Lakers 67-46, but with the Big 12 Conference schedule on tap, it’s fair to wonder how the team will hold up if there aren’t some reinforcements.
Fortunately, Hansberry’s injury isn’t expected to be serious in nature but it’s just another situation that this basketball team has to adapt to in Darian DeVries' inaugural campaign.
“Big blows to our team but we preach here it’s next player up and everybody has to be ready for their opportunity to help us win games,” senior forward Toby Okani said.
Okani stepped up with his first double-double for the Mountaineers with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while senior guard Javon Small did his usual with 19 points and 7 assists.
But with Hansberry out of the lineup, it forced senior center Eduardo Andre into a significant role playing 24 minutes, his highest total of the season in that department.
Andre responded with a season-high 14 points on a perfect 6-6 from the field to go along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a pair of blocks for the Mountaineers.
“Same thing for me whether I'm playing 40 minutes or 10 minutes you just come out there and give energy and play as hard as you can,” Andre said.
Overall, the defensive end of the floor was critical for the Mountaineers as they held the Lakers to 28-percent and into 16 turnovers which allowed the defense to translate into offense. That was especially important because of the troubles that the offense had at times early in the game.
“Definitely I feel like we had to turn it up on defense and speed them up and force them into turnovers,” Andre said. .
The Mountaineers will now have a break before they reconvene Dec. 27 ahead of the Big 12 Conference opener on the road at Kansas. The focus will be on improving defensive rebounding as well as continuing to set the tone on the defensive end.
“Not getting away from where our principles are,” Okani said.
This West Virginia basketball team has had to overcome a number of obstacles and will need to continue to rely on themselves moving forward.
“We still have a talented group but whatever our coaches feel we need to lean on a little more that’s what we’re going to do because they know best and we’re just here to execute,” Okani 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
