For almost a month, Amani Hansberry has been managing an ankle injury he suffered on Dec. 22.
Now healthy, his potential is again being tapped, and he adds another dimension to the West Virginia offense.
"I thought Amani Hansberry on the offensive end just gave us a little bit of a spark there," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
Hansberry was just what the Mountaineers needed in the first half. He scored nine points when WVU's offense looked lifeless, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc.
"Amani got us back into the game, gave us a little bit of energy back into our defense I think from hitting a couple threes," DeVries said.
Hansberry's second half would be slower, but his ability to get the Mountaineers back into the game served its purpose.
"My shot always feels good. I honestly just shoot with confidence at all times. Whenever I got the opportunity to shoot the ball, my teammates believe in me, the coaching staff believes in me, shoot, the managers believe in me, so I just shoot with confidence," Hansberry said.
Hansberry has scored 12 points and 16 points in his last two games, after scoring a combined 18 points in his previous four.
"Amani got hurt right before Christmas and that was a pretty significant deal. He’s been very limited in practice and stuff. He’s been trying to give us what he could as he was coming along but he hasn’t been able to be healthy and run and jump and shoot the way he wanted to," DeVries said.
DeVries added his recent play is more like what he saw from Hansberry early on in the year.
"I felt like the last week you could see a little more bounce in his step and now he’s back to kind of where he was at the Bahamas and playing at a high level. What he does for our offense is really spaces that thing and puts people in some tough spots. Even defensively tonight you could tell he’s got a little bounce back. He went and grabbed those hard two-handed rebounds tonight like you saw maybe early in the year in the Bahamas in a couple of those big games," DeVries said.
Hansberry finished the win over Iowa State with 12 points and six rebounds, the most since Dec. 14 when he had 16 points and six rebounds.
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