MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Georgetown held West Virginia in check and then some for much of Friday’s matchup as part of the Big 12-Big East Battle at the WVU Coliseum.
Yet much of what the Hoyas had worked to accomplish dissipated over a stretch of 4:30 in the second half.
After struggling offensively for large stretches of the contest, the Mountaineers broke loose for 16 unanswered points, allowing West Virginia to turn a four-point deficit into a double-digit lead in what became a 73-60 victory before a crowd of 11,522.
“That first-half team is not going to win a lot of games,” WVU first-year head coach Darian DeVries said. “We have to play a certain way for us to be good. The way we played in the second half, I’ll take that team anywhere.”
The Mountaineers (6-2) trailed for much of the matchup, and the Hoyas (7-2) held their largest lead at 34-28 after scoring the first four points of the second half.
Georgetown, playing its first road game this season and first in Morgantown since 2012, was still on top 43-39 when Drew Fielder converted a follow-up basket with 14:04 remaining.
Starting with Eduardo Andre’s second-chance dunk, the Mountaineers began the most dominant stretch of the outing, and West Virginia’s reserve center factored heavily into it despite those being his only points of the second half.
Andre followed with a pair of blocked shots on two of the Hoyas’ next three possessions, and Toby Okani scored from close range with 11:18 left to give WVU a 45-43 lead.
The Mountaineers remained in front the rest of the way.
“Eduardo kind of ignited some of that for us. Blocked a couple shots, which led to us getting out in transition,” DeVries said. “We got some open looks we weren’t getting in some of the half court stuff. It freed us up some and we found our energy and rhythm a little more.”
Okani converted another layup to double his team’s lead, before Tucker DeVries threw in a three-pointer from off the wing and well beyond the arc for a seven-point advantage.
DeVries followed with another triple and then scored inside for a personal 8-0 run, leaving WVU in front, 55-43, with 8:34 remaining.
Andre added yet another block before DeVries final bucket of the spurt. The Hoyas missed all eight of their field-goal attempts and had two turnovers during the stretch that saw the home team seize control.
“Their big guy [Andre] was the difference maker in the game,” Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley said. “He had two big-time blocks and bothered us with his length. It’s not so much offensively, but what he did to give his team energy.”
But Georgetown was strong enough defensively to tighten the contest, and a Caleb Williams trey was the start of a 7-0 Hoyas’ spurt over 2:58, with the visitors closing their deficit to 55-50 on two Jayden Epps free throws with 5:18 left.
Javon Small countered with one of the more important baskets of the night — a short jumper off a drive with the shot clock winding down.
DeVries canned another three off the wing out of a timeout to leave WVU with a 62-53 lead with 3:16 remaining.
Small later banked in a three with the shot clock getting low, leaving the Hoyas facing a 67-56 deficit with 1:20 to play.
“I adjust to whatever the defense throws at me,” Small said. “I’m not hungry to score the ball all the time. If I see an open man, I’m going to make the pass.”
Following the 54th meeting between the two teams, words and postgame pleasantries were exchanged in the handshake line, leading to coaching staffs from both sides helping to separate their respective squads.
“Because of how things have changed in college sports, I don’t think you should shake hands after games,” Cooley said. “Too much emotion into it. Kids are going to be kids. A couple technical fouls. We don’t want to be the NBA, but I like what they do. They give the wave and keep it moving.
“A bunch of people talking [trash]. That’s all that was.”
Coach DeVries had a somewhat similar outlook.
“I didn’t really see what happened there. A good wave may not be bad. Do the NBA style,” he said. “It was a competitive game.”
The entire first half was played within five points and the Mountaineers led for only 3:56 of it. Epps scored 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting over the first 20 minutes to help the Hoyas take a 30-28 lead into the break.
The visitors also minimized DeVries’ impact, limiting the senior forward to two points on 1-for-5 shooting in the opening half after he’d made eight three-pointers in the team’s previous game against Arizona.
But DeVries got going when the game hung in the balance, and like Small, he scored 13 second-half points and was one of the team’s three double-figure scorers.
“Our team didn’t have the juice in the first half. We came out and brought it a bit in the second half and the crowd helps ignite that, too,” Tucker DeVries said.
Small led all players with 26 points. Okani scored 11, including nine after halftime.
Sencire Harris added six points and a game-high nine rebounds, helping WVU turn a 19-16 rebounding deficit at halftime into a 34-33 edge on the glass for the game.
“There’s a lot of things kids do to impact winning besides scoring,” coach DeVries said, “and Buck is certainly one of them.”
Epps scored 17 to lead Georgetown. Freshman Thomas Sorber added 13 while battling foul trouble and Malik Mack scored 10, though it came on 4-of-14 shooting.
Georgetown finished with eight assists and 14 turnovers.
“Our defense was spectacular. Our offense beat us,” Cooley said. “You can’t play a 40-minute game with eight assists.”
Today on MetroNews This Morning:
–The West Virginia Bar is looking at a resolution to reaffirm the independence of the Judiciary Branch of Government
–Kibar Americas is working on potentially restarting operations at the old Novelis plant in Fairmont
–Berkeley County voters will decide on a school bond next month
–In Sports: WVU’s men and Marshall’s women end the season with championships
Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 4-6-26” on Spreaker.
Listen to “Sports Best Left to SSAC” on Spreaker.
Average. Not a star. Not one to ride the pine either.
That’s not a knock – just an honest description of my time as a high school student-athlete. Never the fastest. Never the guy you called on in the clutch. But also, never one to quit or to do anything halfway.
And truth be told, most of us live right there in the middle of the athletic bell curve.
It was clear early on – clear to anyone watching, and especially clear to me – college athletics, much less the pros, wasn’t the future. But the lessons – the real value – those took root.
Persistence… when hustle is more abundant than talent and moving forward means hitting brick walls.
Leadership… getting the best out of others, even when they don’t always want to give it.
Teamwork… learning your success depends on more than just you. Helping others reach their goals brings you closer to your own.
Smarts… finding an edge when others rely on raw ability that you don’t have.
Failure… learning to lose with grace – and maybe more importantly – losing the fear of it altogether.
But somewhere along the way, those goals have become more like a consolation prize than first prize itself.
That’s why what the legislature just did matters.
After some back and forth, lawmakers returned control of high school sports to the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (SSAC). The governor signed the bill, and rightly so, even if he wanted a clearer picture of the emergency rules first.
Plainly, the people closest to high school sports are the best ones to govern it.
Parents move? Let the kid play. No reason to stand in the way of opportunity.
But transferring just to chase a better team, a better program? That may be understandable, but it’s not always beneficial. And sometimes, it comes at the expense of the very lessons sports are meant to teach. What we – the adults – should value more than winning.
Because life isn’t simple.
And these young men and women need the chance to face adversity. A chance to work through it and to grow from it. One day, real life is coming and it doesn’t ease you into the game. It hits like a Mack truck.
Many kids, often the ones who don’t play because of one struggle or another, are forced to face life well before childhood is over. Another commentary for another time, but what those children wouldn’t give for the escape of sports or the coping mechanism it provides – the relief of a game and time with friends sometimes capped with victory or not. All over when a buzzer sounds bringing the reality of life once again with the challenges of abuse, addiction or hunger.
Absent realities from the conversation in the past few years.
Indulge a story that comes to mind.
A pastor once had a son – gifted, naturally athletic. The kind of talent that could’ve taken him far.
But the boy didn’t want to play. He’d toss a ball around for fun, sure, but his real interest was elsewhere. He felt called to something bigger. Like his father, he had a gift for words — a powerful voice, a sharper pen. While others practiced on fields and courts, he wrote sermons and practiced oratory.
A coach once asked the father, “Why aren’t you raising him to be an athlete? He’s got the talent others don’t have.”
The father’s answer was simple, but perhaps remarkable for these times.
“I’m not raising him to play ball. I’m raising him to be a man.”
And for that young man, the path to becoming one wasn’t on a field or a court. It was in a pulpit. Dad knew that.
The path won’t be the same for everyone. Some will learn life’s lessons in sports, clubs or volunteering. Others, still, will find them elsewhere.
But the point is this: the goal isn’t a championship or playing at the next level. The odds don’t lend themselves to that. It’s raising young people into capable, grounded adults.
That’s what was missing from this long-running transfer debate.
And now – with the SSAC back in charge – there’s at least a better chance we focus more on that than we do now.
The Oklahoma Sooners battle the West Virginia Mountaineers in the College Basketball Crown championship game on Sunday. Oklahoma defeated Baylor 82-69, while West Virginia downed Creighton 87-70 in the semifinals on Saturday. The Sooners (21-15), who tied for 11th in the Southeastern Conference with Auburn at 7-11, have won eight of their last nine games. The Mountaineers (20-14), who tied for seventh in the Big 12 Conference at 9-9, have won three of their last four games.
Tip-off from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is set for 5:30 p.m. ET. Oklahoma leads the all-time series 18-10, including a 77-63 win in their last meeting on Jan. 17, 2024. Oklahoma is a 3.5-point favorite in the latest Oklahoma vs. West Virginia odds, while the over/under for total points scored is 137.5.
Before making any Oklahoma vs. West Virginia picks, you NEED to see the basketball predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every college basketball game 10,000 times. It entered the 2026 Final Four on a sizzling 11-1 run on its top-rated over/under college basketball picks dating back to last season, and is on a 28-22 run on top-rated CBB side picks.
The model has simulated West Virginia vs. Oklahoma 10,000 times and the results are in. The model is going Over on the total, and it also says one side of the spread hits in over 50% of simulations!
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