Entering Wednesday afternoon, West Virginia had a plan to attack No. 3 Gonzaga.
The Mountaineers wanted to slow the game down, play on their terms, and not let Gonzaga's offense really get going. They were successful in that as West Virginia ultimately pulled the upset, beating the Bulldogs 86-78 in overtime.
"Our entire game plan, to be honest with you, was to not make this a transition game. As much as we love to run, this was a game we thought they were better at it than us, and we needed to find a different strategy if we were going to come out on top tonight. I thought our guys did a great job throughout both halves of trying to control the tempo and playing at the pace we wanted to play," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
Entering the game, Gonzaga was 17th in the country in transition points per game. On Wednesday, WVU was able to hold them to only nine.
"Number one thing for us, we had to keep them out of transition. The two ways to do that are a, not turn it over, and then b, make sure we’re getting quality shots. Shots that our rebounders and the guys that needed to get back knew were coming because when you take bad shots, all of a sudden, you’re off-balanced, and you don’t have the floor balance that you need. That was priority number one, and I believe they only had nine transition points tonight, which I think is a huge credit to the guys and doing a great job of keeping them out of what they do best," DeVries said.
As far as not turning the ball over as well as taking quality shots, West Virginia also delivered on both of those fronts.
The Mountaineers totaled 13 turnovers, the same number as Gonzaga, and WVU's turnovers only turned into 10 points for the Bulldogs.
WVU also was able to take quality shots throughout the second half and in overtime, making 51.5 percent of their shots combined in the second half in overtime. The Mountaineers also scored 22 of their 55 points in the paint in the final 25 minutes, as well as going 16-for-19 at the free throw line.
"It certainly wasn’t perfect tonight, but I thought our guys did a great job of trying to do whatever they could do to take away their strengths, and they played to it. That’s a credit to the guys and their mental preparation, along with their physical output during the game. They were incredibly locked into every component of what we were trying to do on both ends of the floor," DeVries said.
Javon Small was the catalyst for West Virginia on offense. He was slow to bring the ball up the court but would also apply pressure on offense when needed. He finished the game with 31 points, which is the second-most points he's ever scored in a game. Tucker DeVries worked in tandem with Small, finishing with 16 points and four assists.
WVU would control the glass 42-36, and Gonzaga only had 14 second-chance points as they came into the game top-ten in the country in extra scoring chances per game.
"We knew we had to play a different style tonight to win this game. We had to keep it a little slower pace, limit the possessions as much as we could but also still wanted our guys to be confident and aggressive, and I thought they did a nice balance of that the entire night," DeVries said.
West Virginia now faces Louisville at noon on Thursday in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.
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