West Virginia was outscored 44-31 in the second half on Wednesday as they were bounced in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, falling 67-60 to Colorado.
Following the loss, the Mountaineers were focused on what's still in front of them, as they now wait for Selection Sunday.
West Virginia led by as many as 13 in the first half and nine in the second half, but a 15-0 Colorado run, helped spur the Buffaloes back into the game. CU scored 18 points in the paint in the second half, adding 13 points at the free throw line, while they made half of their 3-pointers.
"I thought they went to some more floppy action in the second half and were able to throw it inside. They’ve been pretty good all year when you bring a double team at kicking it out for open threes. A little bit of the foul trouble probably played a part in it and we weren’t quite as aggressive defensively as we needed to be. We went and brought help one time and gave out a kick out three, so we were kind of in a tough spot of whether to come or not to come. And they did a good job taking advantage of that," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
CU shot 61 percent in the second half, and defensively, the Mountaineers couldn't figure them out. WVU turned the ball over 14 times on the afternoon and 11 times in the second half compared to Colorado's four turnovers.
"It’s not a tough read. I’ve been facing all different types of defenses all year. Whether it’s a double team, triple team, or just one on one, everybody being in the gap. Like I said, I came out hot first half, second half I just came out slower. So I just got to do a better job of that," WVU guard Javon Small said.
Small finished with 23 points, with 13 of them coming in the first half, and six of those points coming in the final minute of regulation.
"I got to be more aggressive throughout the whole game. Like coach said, they were running floppy, had me running around. I’m just a natural playmaker before a scorer in my opinion. I thought I could make the right play, started dishing the ball off. I just got to be more aggressive," Small said.
Now, WVU awaits their likely NCAA Tournament destination. DeVries was confident the Mountaineers were safely in the field as an at-large team before this game, and he still feels this way.
He said his group will now head home and recalibrate ahead of Selection Sunday in four days.
"I think the biggest thing for us is certainly disappointed with the loss, maybe how it happened. We can’t change that now. The biggest thing for us is we’re going to have another opportunity to play and we’re going to get a chance to go back and regroup. Like we have all year, we’re going to reset, and focus on some of the things we need to clean up from this game, but more importantly, come back and get our minds right and get ready to go try to make a run," DeVries 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
