No. 21 West Virginia continues to rightfully battle fatigue throughout the second half of games as it regularly plays with what is in essence a seven-man rotation.
That was again the case Sunday at Colorado.
Fortunately for the Mountaineers, reserve guard Joseph Yesufu played a major part in ensuring the visitors didn’t squander a 14-point second-half lead.
Yesufu scored 13 of his 18 points after halftime, including eight over the final 4:44 to help West Virginia overcome the Buffaloes’ second-half comeback attempt in a 78-70 victory at CU Events Center.
“Joe Yesufu really gave us a good spark when we needed it the most,” first-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “Our offense had gotten a little stagnant and we were settling for jumpers off of some of their switching and things. Joe was able to give us that spark we needed.”
By claiming a win in the first meeting between the two teams, WVU improved to 12-3 overall, 3-1 in Big 12 play and won a second conference road game this season to match the program’s Big 12 road win total of the previous three seasons combined. Colorado (9-6, 0-4) remains one of two winless teams in league play.
The Mountaineers never trailed outside of the game’s opening basket, and they put together a strong opening half to lead 40-29 through 20 minutes — West Virginia’s third double-figure halftime advantage in four Big 12 contests.
Center Eduardo Andre made all four of his field-goal attempts and scored 10 points in the opening half, while freshman wing Jonathan Powell added 10 on 4-of-7 shooting with a pair of three-pointers. Add in nine points from point guard Javon Small, and the Mountaineers’ top scoring trio combined to equal Colorado’s point total at halftime.
WVU went to halftime with five turnovers to Colorado’s 11, and the Mountaineers had all 12 points off turnovers in the game to that point.
“Creating some of those turnovers was huge for us to get a little separation in the first half,” DeVries said.
When Small hit three threes over a stretch of 1:15 early into the second half, it gave the visitors their largest lead of the contest at 49-35.
Yesufu added a triple moments later for a 52-39 advantage, but CU increased its aggressiveness offensively and was to within seven at 54-47 when Dangot Bak made two free throws with 13:22 remaining.
That was a theme throughout the second half as the Buffaloes made 24-of-28 foul shots after not producing a point from the free-throw line on two attempts in the first half.
Bak’s two free throws came early into a stretch of 12 straight Colorado points scored from the charity stripe. It ended with Trevor Baskin making the second of two attempts with 8:20 to play, at which point the Mountaineer lead was 57-55.
“Defensively, we put ourselves in some tough positions with some reaching fouls and not staying disciplined and allowed Colorado to get to the line and deservedly so,” DeVries said. “We have to learn how to still be able to be physical, but also be discipline in the way we’re doing that. That game shifted pretty quickly in the second half and Colorado did a nice job with some adjustments.”
Andre and Sencire Harris accounted for dunks on consecutive WVU possessions, and Harris scored from close range again with 5:41 left for a 63-59 advantage.
After Baskin scored on a second-chance opportunity with 2:28 left to bring the Buffaloes to within 66-63, Yesufu scored on a drive to the basket.
With WVU’s lead again back to three on its next possession, Yesufu produced the game’s most important basket, scoring with his left hand on a drive that amounted to a conventional three-point play and a 71-65 advantage with 1:23 remaining.
That was the end of eight straight WVU points produced by Yesufu, who entered averaging 4.1 and had scored more than seven once over his first appearances in a Mountaineer uniform.
“They were doing a nice job on Javon in the second half, so we wanted to put the ball in Joe’s hands a little bit more,” DeVries said. “He has great speed and at that point in the game, that’s what we needed was somebody that could get downhill and be able to get to the rim a little bit more.”
Small made 3-of-4 free throws to help the visitors up their lead to nine, and the Buffaloes never got the deficit inside of six over the final minute.
Yesufu made 6-of-9 shots in his season-high scoring output.
Small led all players with 26 points and seven assists.
Andre added 12 points and shot 5 for 5 before fouling out, while Powell finished with 10 after a scoreless second half.
WVU was without Tucker DeVries for a seventh straight game and freshman KJ Tenner for a second straight contest.
“We’re a little shorthanded, so we do get fatigued sometimes in the second half,” DeVries said. “[Colorado head coach Tad Boyle] did a really good job. He played a lot of guys and they had fresh bodies that kept coming at us. We just don’t have the amount of bodies we need to sub and we got in a little foul trouble on top of it. We got worn out a little bit, but we had just enough. Joe, being a little more fresh than the other guys, was able to kind of will us to the last finish line.”
Julian Hammond III led Colorado with 23 points and was 8 for 8 on free throws.
Assane Diop added 13 points and was 6 for 6 from the free-throw line.
Colorado out-rebounded the Mountaineers 35-30, but scored only two points off seven WVU turnovers. The Mountaineers also had a 32-26 edge in paint points.
The Buffaloes made only 8-of-23 field-goal attempts after halftime and finished 20 of 48 for the game.
“It was critical that we didn’t let them get a lot of space,” DeVries said. “They have multiple guys that when they get some room have the ability to get it off and they shoot it at a high percentage. We wanted to try to get into some of those ball screens and actions as much as we could to try to make it difficult. The counter to it is that’s where a lot of our fouls started coming. We have to figure out a way to be able to do both.”
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