West Virginia holds off UMass, 75-69 – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Massachusetts rarely looked comfortable and struggled to develop offensive rhythm throughout the first half of Friday’s game at West Virginia.

The Mountaineers endured similar difficulties for much of the second half, but as a result of often frustrating the Minutemen over the first 20 minutes with relentless ball pressure, WVU built a 17-point halftime lead that led the way in a 75-69 victory at the WVU Coliseum.

“I loved our tenacity in the first half defensively,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “Both games, we’ve been really good in the first half defensively and had a little slippage in the second half. That ball pressure was critical to getting us that lead in the first half.”

West Virginia (2-0) held the visitors to nine field goals and forced 12 turnovers to go with its 10 steals in the opening half, allowing the Mountaineers to move into the intermission leading 45-28.

Minutemen guard Rahsool Diggins, who poured in 26 points on the strength of eight three-pointers in his team’s season-opening win against New Hampshire on Monday, drew plenty of attention from the Mountaineers and namely guard Sencire Harris.

Diggins scored 19 points, but 17 came after halftime after he missed all five of his field-goal attempts in the opening frame.

“Diggins came off eight threes last game,” Harris said. “He did hit some late in the second half, but my responsibility was to take that away.”

After building leads of 21-0 and 30-2 in its season-opening victory against Robert Morris, the Mountaineers didn’t go on top in this one until Javon Small’s conventional three-point play for a 7-6 advantage.

WVU never trailed again and held a 20-10 lead following a three-pointer from freshman Jonathan Powell, who went on to score 10 first-half points.

Seven of those points from Powell came over the final 3:23, including a fast break layup that left his team with a 37-26 lead. Powell accounted for the final five points of the half to key an 8-0 run that turned a nine-point margin into a 45-28 halftime advantage.

“I love the way JP is playing. He’s playing really confident right now,” DeVries said. “He has the green light at any time and he’s not afraid to use it.”

The Mountaineers entered the intermission with 15 field goals, five triples and 10 points off 11 free-throw attempts.

Amani Hansberry opened WVU’s second-half scoring to up the lead to 48-30 — the Mountaineers’ largest advantage of the night.

Although Diggins countered with a trey on the ensuing possession and made another soon after to bring the Minutemen to within 12, WVU was still comfortably in front at 53-38 when Hansberry scored from close range with 16:37 remaining.

The Mountaineers then went 9-plus minutes with only one field goal — a layup from freshman guard KJ Tenner that made it 57-43 with 13:15 left.

A triple from Daniel Hankins-Sanford with 8:42 to play enabled the Minutemen to cut their deficit to 60-52, before Tucker DeVries ended a field goal drought of more than 6 minutes for the home team with a three off the right wing that upped his team’s lead to 11.

UMass disrupted the Mountaineers with full court pressure that helped lead to eight second-half turnovers, and the Minutemen were within striking distance when Daniel Rivera scored inside and then split two free throws to cut WVU’s lead to 66-59 with 2:45 left.

Hansberry then answered with perhaps the biggest bucket of the night, utilizing ball fakes and patience to get free from the UMass defense, before converting near the rim for a nine-point advantage.

“The scout was well put together and we knew they jumped at a lot of pump fakes, they’re ball hungry and press up on you,” Hansberry said. “Just keeping it simple.”

WVU led by no fewer than the final margin the rest of the way, with Diggins hitting a triple just before time expired.

DeVries led the Mountaineers with 17 points and made 8-of-9 free throws. Hansberry added 16 points, Small scored 12 and Powell added 10 to make it four in double figures.

Small also had a team-high four steals and added four assists, though he had four turnovers and DeVries finished with five.

“That’s 100 percent on me. There’s a lot of plays you want back after the fact,” DeVries said. “We saw a press for the first time. We’ve practiced it before, but live bullets come flying and it’s something we have to clean up.”

DeVries had a team-high eight boards to help WVU out-rebound UMass, 36-34. 

“We ended up plus-2 in rebounding, which is great,” coach DeVries said. “Our biggest issue tonight was turnovers. We’re a team that takes a lot of pride in taking care of the ball and 14 turnovers is too much, especially late in the game with a chance to seal it away and make it a little less stressful. We have to put more time into our press break and stuff. It’s something we thought we were ready for, but obviously we have to do a better job.”

Diggins scored 19, Rivera added 14 and Hankins-Sanford and Jaylen Curry scored 13 apiece in defeat.

Curry was held scoreless in the second half, though that’s also when he contributed all seven of his assists.

The Mountaineers made 25-of-29 free throws while the Minutemen finished 13 for 20.

WVU shot 21 for 57, including 6 for 24 after halftime.

“There are some positives to this. You shoot 25 percent in the second half, you don’t win many of those games typically,” coach DeVries said. “Finding a way to win ugly is a quality, too. It’s not going to be an 18-point lead every night and just sail off into the sunset.”