MORGANTOWN — It went from almost heaven to simply paradise, West Virginia.
That was the feeling for the WVU men’s basketball team inside the Imperial Arena in the Bahamas on Wednesday, as the Mountaineers pulled off the biggest shock of the early college hoops season with an 86-78 overtime victory against No. 3 Gonzaga in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“Our whole focus since everyone got here in June is we’ve got a bunch of new guys and just one guy on the roster from last year. We have to grow together,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “This was a part of it. It was a step, and we look forward to seeing what this team can do.”
After erasing a five-point deficit over the final 25 seconds in regulation and then outscoring the high-scoring Bulldogs in overtime, there may be a few more in line now waiting to see what this group can do.
“I thought today was another great step in the right direction,” said WVU guard Tucker DeVries, the hero at the end of regulation with a 3-pointer and then canning two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to tie the game. “We knew we had a lot of things to improve on from that Pitt game. We really dug in and improved on what we needed to improve on. That was leaning on each other more offensively and defensively.”
Up next for WVU is a match against Louisville at noon Thursday. The Cardinals (4-1) pulled off a major upset, too, with an 89-61 victory against No. 14 Indiana.
There were so many moments that gave this victory to the Mountaineers (4-1), beginning with the play of Javon Small, who finished with 31 points and seven rebounds.
“I’ll go ahead and say it, he was pretty good,” Darian DeVries said.
Or maybe it was the defensive play of WVU’s Sencire Harris and the job he did on Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard, who did finish with 12 assists, but was just 1 of 10 shooting and was held to just seven points.
“They were taking away Ryan the whole game,” said Gonzaga forward Braden Huff, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points. “We have to be able to get into actions when he’s taken away. We had some good sets, but (WVU) is a high-pressure team and they got us out of our stuff.”
Or maybe it was how the Mountaineers took a game that looked like an AAU track meet in the first half — Gonzaga (5-1) led 39-31 at the break — and simply turned it into a real basketball game in the second half.
“Our entire game plan was to not make this a transition game,” DeVries said. “As much as we love to run, this was a game where we thought they were better at it than us and we needed to find a different strategy.”
All of it played a role into WVU cutting into the Bulldogs’ lead and then never going away.
Even then, the Mountaineers trailed 71-66 with 25.6 seconds left in regulation, which is when Tucker DeVries played his most crucial role.
He nailed a 3-pointer with 18.9 seconds left, and WVU elected to go for a steal rather than foul.
Near mid-court, DeVries picked the pocket of Nolan Hickman and raced in for a lay-up before getting fouled. He made both free throws to send the game into overtime.
“The possession on offense, I got a decent look and was able to make it,” he said. “The guys up front on the press did a great job and kind of speeded them up. They were in a rush to get past halfcourt and were a little loose. I happened to get a steal and made a play.”
The overtime nearly belonged entirely to the Mountaineers, who took the lead for good on Toby Okani’s two free throws that gave WVU a 75-73 lead with 2:59 remaining.
WVU made 3 of 5 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the foul line to pick up the biggest win in Darian DeVries young tenure at WVU.
“We weren’t very connected defensively and we had trouble scoring,” Nembhard said. “They were the better team in overtime and throughout the game.”
Along with Small’s individual performance, WVU got a career night from forward Amani Hansberry, who finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, as WVU came away with a 42-36 edge in rebounds.
Tucker DeVries added 16 points and Okani finished with 10.
