West Virginia obtained 26 factors from Tucker DeVries to outlast 24th-ranked Arizona 83-76 in extra time within the third-place sport at this 12 months’s Unhealthy Boys Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis at Atlantis Resort Imperial Area in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
It was the third-straight extra time sport for WVU, which outlasted third-ranked Gonzaga two days in the past after which misplaced to Louisville yesterday.
“I have been doing this 27 years now as a coach, and I do not know that I’ve had a gaggle of three video games like this the place I have been extra impressed and extra pleased with a gaggle of males who confirmed unbelievable struggle, resolve and toughness,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries mentioned. “Perhaps much more importantly, togetherness. They simply refused to give up.”
It’s believed to be the primary time in class historical past West Virginia has ever performed three consecutive extra time video games.
In the present day, DeVries was nearly unstoppable at occasions, notably from behind the 3-point arc the place he made 8 of 12, together with a few simply in entrance of the mid-court line. DeVries had 17 factors at halftime to provide WVU a 39-37 lead at intermission.
“We needed to get (Tucker) going to supply us that different scoring choice,” DeVries mentioned. “We weren’t getting him sufficient clear appears to be like and he was form of forgotten about in our offense and he was coming off some staggers and getting some motion, plus, he created some alternatives for different individuals.”
WVU, down backup huge Eduaro Andre following his harm yesterday in opposition to Louisville and nonetheless with out Jayden Stone, needed to go one participant deeper on its bench with senior ahead Haris Elezovic getting his first significant minutes of the season. Elezovic did not rating, however he did seize two rebounds in seven minutes of motion.
“Once we line up and play, there are not any excuses,” DeVries mentioned. “We now have 40 minutes to win the sport so let’s determine it out and I assumed they did an unbelievable job of rallying round one another (as we speak) to discover a option to come out with one other extra time win.”
The Mountaineers (5-2) appeared to have management of the sport with lower than 4 minutes left after Javon Small’s two free throws gave them a 63-56 lead, however empty possessions allowed the Wildcats to battle again.
KJ Lewis transformed a conventional three-point play to chop West Virginia’s result in 4, after which Jaden Bradley’s layup made it a two-point sport with three minutes remaining.
Toby Okani answered with a nook 3 with 2:06 left, however that was WVU’s final discipline aim throughout regulation.
Trey Townsend transformed a layup with 47 seconds left and Caleb Love banged in a transition 3 with 14 seconds left to tie the sport.
Following a West Virginia timeout, Tucker DeVries was unable to get his shot contained in the free throw line to go all the way down to win the sport.
In extra time, Amani Hansberry obtained issues going with a jumper after which DeVries hit one other 3 to provide WVU a 71-66 lead. The margin swelled to eight on two Small free throws with 1:32 left and once more obtained to eight on two extra Small charities with 27 seconds to go.
“I assumed the blokes did an unbelievable job coming into the extra time,” DeVries mentioned. “We obtained again into some motion and like I informed our guys: I am nonetheless studying easy methods to play with them on the finish of video games and we obtained a bit of too iso completely satisfied.
“We had been attempting to match up late and we did not get nice possessions there, so we needed to get again to what was getting us some success by getting again to extra of our off-ball motion and obtained them chasing us a bit of bit,” DeVries mentioned.
WVU gained as we speak’s sport regardless of being out-shot 45.3% to 39.7% and being out-scored 38 to twenty within the paint.
The Mountaineers made up for it with a 24 to six benefit in factors off turnovers and their 21 assists on 27 made baskets.
Okani contributed a season-high 20 on 7-of-11 taking pictures, whereas Small, who scored 57 factors within the first two video games of the match in opposition to Gonzaga and Louisville, completed with 14 this afternoon.
Hansberry contributed 13 factors and 10 rebounds. WVU had a 40 to 39 edge on the glass in opposition to the a lot greater Wildcats.
Arizona, which drops to 3-4, obtained 24 factors from Love and 19 from Townsend.
West Virginia is again on the WVU Coliseum subsequent Friday night time to face outdated Large East foe Georgetown in a Large 12-Large East Battle that will likely be televised nationally on ESPN2.
Tickets can be found and may be bought by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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