MORGANTOWN — Maybe it was somehow fitting the way West Virginia’s 72-65 victory against UCF played out inside the Coliseum on Saturday.
Great start. Then some adversity popped up in the middle, just before the Mountaineers made enough key plays at the end to pull it out.
If that sounds familiar, it should. It’s basically how the entire season played out for the Mountaineers (19-12, 10-10 Big 12).
“A little bit,” said WVU guard Javon Small, who celebrated his final home game at WVU with 25 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. “We just have to do a better job of coming out in the second half when we have a big lead and not get too comfortable.”
In any sense, the Mountaineers wrapped up the No. 8 seed and a first-round bye in next week’s Big 12 tournament, meaning WVU won’t play until 3 p.m. on March 12 in Kansas City, Mo. against either TCU or Colorado.
WVU likely sewed up its at-large spot for the NCAA tournament with the win and won’t need any kind of magic in the conference tournament to move on to the postseason.
“There’s no doubt now,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “They punched their ticket tonight. They’re in the tournament.”
The other news was Small’s 25 points tied him with UCF’s Keyshawn Hall — he finished 1 of 10 shooting for just six points — as the Big 12’s leading scorer on the season.
The first half was such a good start, DeVries held up the box score from the first 20 minutes of action at his postgame press conference and joked he was only going to look at it rather than the entire game.
“We certainly keep things interesting,” he said.
It included 19 points from Small, as WVU made 11 more baskets than the Knights (16-15, 7-13) to race out to a 47-25 advantage.
Then came the adversity, which WVU saw plenty of during the season.
There was the shoulder injury that forced Tucker DeVries to end his season after just eight games. There were other key injuries to Amani Hansberry and K.J. Tenner that shortened the rotation and a three-game losing streak that led to losing six of eight at one point.
Against UCF, the adversity was the Knights not giving up, as guard Darius Johnson finished with 27 points and UCF shot 50% in the second half.
“You can either fold or keep fighting,” UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We got back to more of what we wanted to do defensively and also making sure offensively we made more connecting plays.”
What was once a 27-point lead for the Mountaineers had been cut to 67-64 when Toby Okani missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Hansberry grabbed the offensive rebound, and that was maybe the key to the game, because the Mountaineers had 16 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points.
This coming from a WVU team that is dead last in the Big 12 in both offensive and overall rebounds on the season.
“The 16 offensive rebounds, we put a huge emphasis on it in this game, because we thought we could go get some,” DeVries said. “None were any bigger than the ones off missed free throws.”
Hansberry’s rebound turned into a 3-pointer from Jonathan Powell that sealed the game.
Hansberry finished with a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Powell capped off his freshman campaign at the Coliseum with 15 points.
“I thought a lot of different guys made some key plays, some winning plays,” DeVries said. “Like off of missed free throws, we got two offensive rebounds, massive offensive rebounds. Those are the types of things that good teams find a way even when you give away a big lead like that.
“Good teams still find a way to come out on top, and we’re certainly glad they did that.”
