MORGANTOWN W.Va. — Over the first 60 minutes this season, West Virginia made better than 51 percent (48 of 93) of its field-goal attempts and shot well from three-point range (19 of 46) while scoring 2.2 points per minute.
Crisp offensive execution and sound decision-making to create opportunities in transition were critical reasons as to why, before things took a turn for the worse throughout the second half of last Friday’s 75-69 win against Massachusetts.
The Mountaineers (2-0) managed a fairly respectable 30 second-half points on the strength of making 15-of-18 free throws. They struggled mightily to score in the half court, making only 6-of-24 shots and 3-of-11 threes over the final 20 minutes.
After generating 15 fast break points in the opening half, WVU was held to four during a second half the Minutemen won 41-30, allowing the visitors to turn a 17-point halftime deficit into a relatively tight contest late.
“In the first half, defensively we were pretty good, and because of that, it really affected our offense,” first-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “We were able to get in transition off of creating some turnovers. The second half, especially the first 10 minutes or so, we weren’t getting stops. It took away our transition game and allowed them to hang around. Then it got tight. We responded again late defensively and we were able to get some stops to seal the game off.”
Amani Hansberry scored 12 second-half points and made half of his six field-goal attempts. Tucker DeVries added 10 points and made 2-of-3 shots — all of which were three-pointers.
Outside of that duo, WVU managed only eight second-half points on 1-for-15 shooting. Starters Javon Small and Toby Okani were both 0 for 3 and freshman Jonathan Powell missed all five of his shots after shooting 4 for 5 with 10 points in the opening half.
As West Virginia sputtered offensively, the Minutemen cut what had been an 18-point deficit to nine halfway through the second half.
UMass was to within seven with inside 3 minutes remaining before Hansberry scored from close range to help seal the outcome.
“Games aren’t always calm or easy,” Hansberry said.
His head coach expressed a similar sentiment, and though he was disappointed with the offensive inefficiency throughout the second half, DeVries noted the Mountaineers found a way to produce their desired result when they were far from their best.
“Some nights you have to figure out a way when it’s not going well and we’re not making shots that we can still find a way to win that game,” coach DeVries said. “I was proud of the guys for being able to do that.”
WVU has 31 fast break points through its first two contests (12 against Robert Morris and 19 against UMass). Yet when the Minutemen limited the Mountaineers to four second-half points in that category, WVU had trouble scoring.
“Pace is great for us and it’s why we want to play that way. Get into the open floor and give ourselves the best opportunity to play against a broken defense,” coach DeVries said. “You’re not going to be able to do that every night, because the game is going to get slow and ugly at times. We have to figure out as a staff when they get us in the half court, what do we need to do a little bit better to give ourselves some more opportunities that we feel like can be more successful.”
The next chance comes at 8 p.m. Friday when DeVries coaches in his first Backyard Brawl as the Mountaineers play Pittsburgh at Petersen Events Center.
West Virginia has the luxury of a week’s worth of preparation leading up to the matchup, which affords the team the opportunity to clean up areas that most need improvement before then.
“I would rather have done it a different way, but every game is going to bring a new set of learning opportunities for us. Late in the game, it got close and you could feel it,” coach DeVries said. “The crowd all knew it, too. A big lead slipped away and our guys responded well and got it to a point where we’re back up double digits again. We did a good job getting it re-established and that’s not always easy to do when that momentum starts to shift to get it back and be able to close off a game.
“I told the guys winning is hard and it’s something you never apologize for. You have to learn from it — even off a win — what we can we do better to put yourself in a more comfortable situation when you played so well in the first half. They’re going to learn to win together and lose together probably at some point, too, but that’s all part of the process.”