The Phog Has Lifted! – West Virginia College Athletics

Javon Small’s free throw with 1.8 seconds left lifted West Virginia to a 62-61 upset victory over seventh-ranked Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
 
It was the Mountaineers’ first-ever triumph in 12 tries at Kansas, and snaps KU’s 33-game profitable streak in convention openers. 
 
The final time the Jayhawks dropped a league lidlifter was on Jan. 8, 1991, when it misplaced 88-82 to Oklahoma whereas the 2 groups had been members of the Large Eight Convention.
 
“For a pair minutes there, I believed we had been going to lose the 12^th one,” an elated West Virginia coach Darian DeVries stated afterward.
 
Right this moment’s victory was unlikely in a number of alternative ways.
 
One, West Virginia was with out two key starters, guard Tucker DeVries and ahead Amani Hansberry, and the group had points with its constitution flight yesterday and didn’t arrive in Lawrence till early Tuesday morning.
 
Moreover, the lodge at which the group at was staying in Lawrence misplaced energy briefly this morning, including extra disruptions to the journey.
 
“I am extremely happy with the blokes, particularly with the circumstances – the accidents and the journey” DeVries stated. “Like we at all times discuss, there are not any excuses in our program; we’re going to line up and go compete.”
 
And compete they did!
 
Regardless of the obstacles, DeVries’ gritty group got here out and held the Jayhawks scoreless for the primary 5 and a half minutes of the sport and led by as many as 15 factors within the first half.
 
The benefit swelled to 18 on Jonathan Powell’s 3 and Eduardo Andre’s layup to start the second half, earlier than Kansas started chipping away.
 
KU received it to 12 on Dajuan Harris Jr.’s 3 with 14:40 to go. The margin fell to single digits on Flory Bidunga’s layup with 8:09 remaining. He received one other one to go down a minute later, and the margin was decreased to 2 on Zeke Mayo’s two free throws.
 
Freshman KJ Tenner ended Kansas’ 10-0 run with a jumper, and former Jayhawk Joseph Yesufu adopted with an enormous 3 with 5 minutes remaining to get the WVU lead again out to seven.
 
Mayo and Small exchanged baskets and finally, the Jayhawks tied the sport on Mayo’s standard three-point play with 15 seconds left.
 
The sport got here all the way down to Bidunga fouling Small and Small making the second free throw after lacking the primary.
 
The senior guard scored West Virginia’s ultimate seven factors and completed with 13 to go along with 11 rebounds and 6 assists.
 
Andre, a senior middle getting his second begin of the season, tallied a season-high 15 factors on 7 of 9 capturing. He additionally grabbed six rebounds and blocked 4 photographs in 34 minutes of motion.
 
Powell, additionally making one other begin immediately, contributed 11, together with 3 of 8 from 3-point vary.
 
Mayo led all scorers with 27, with 13 of these coming from the free throw line.
 
Kansas followers, upset with an over-and-back violation that was known as late within the recreation, had been conveniently overlooking a 21 to six free throw disparity that was 21 to 2 earlier than the Jayhawks needed to begin fouling to regain possession of the basketball.
 
This was nearly harking back to a WVU recreation performed right here in 2018 when Kansas shot 35 free throws to West Virginia’s 2 in a 77-69 Jayhawks win.
 
KU shot simply 38.8% from the ground and regardless of a big measurement and depth benefit, outrebounded West Virginia by only a 33 to 32 margin.
 
Factors within the paint had been even, 28 to twenty-eight, and Kansas had an 11 to eight edge in bench scoring.
 
West Virginia, which led all the recreation, assisted on 18 of its 26 discipline objectives, whereas Kansas assisted on simply 10 of its 19 discipline objectives.
 
“The primary 25 minutes or so the blokes did an excellent job of staying composed and enjoying inside themselves,” DeVries stated. “Clearly, from a game-plan perspective, we needed to gradual the sport method down simply because we did not really feel like we might run with them on this constructing, and we needed to maintain the group out of it as a lot as attainable.
 
“The fellows performed great for an extended time period, after which to be trustworthy, they weathered the storm,” DeVries added. “Plenty of stuff goes in opposition to you by lacking some bunnies, the group is beginning to get in it, they tie the sport again up, and Javon is ready to make a veteran play.”
 
Right this moment’s victory will go down as one of many nice highway triumphs in class annals, probably approaching West Virginia’s 77-70 win over fifth-ranked Kentucky in Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 20, 1957.
 
The late Jerry West, whom West Virginia is honoring this yr with a No. 44 patch on its jerseys, was the star participant in that recreation.
 
The Mountaineers, receiving high 25 votes this week, enhance to 10-2 total and return residence to face Oklahoma State contained in the WVU Coliseum at midday. The sport shall be televised nationally on CBS Sports activities Community.
 
Good tickets nonetheless stay and may be bought by means of the Mountaineer Ticket Workplace by logging on to WVUGAME.com.