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.”
