West Virginia hopes to use Pittsburgh loss as a valuable lesson

West Virginia found out a tough lesson on the road at Pittsburgh falling 86-62 for their first loss of the season in the Backyard Brawl.

The Mountaineers shot only 39-percent from the field and 21-percent from three, while the Panthers were close to 50-percent from the field in convincing win.

“We didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to. I thought Pitt got going early, got a little confidence shooting it from three. Thought we had some decent looks early in the game that didn’t go down and could never really get some traction to claw back into it,” head coach Darian DeVries said.

The Panthers were able to get to the rim and kick the ball out for open looks which was something that the Mountaineers were aware could be an option but wanted to prevent dribble penetration.

“It was a little bit of give and take from our standpoint and from a strategy standpoint we were wrong and they made us pay,” DeVries said.

West Virginia now sits at 2-1 on the season with an upcoming home contest against Iona before the program is set to play some more challenging games beginning with a match up against Gonzaga in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. From there more challenges will lie ahead.

The focus for this team is to use what unfolded against the Panthers and learn from it moving forward. That is easier said than done at times, but the Mountaineers will need to try to turn things around in short order as the schedule is only going to continue to get more difficult.

“We didn’t respond the way we wanted to but I’ve still got faith in my group. We’ve done it before and faced adversity and came back from a large deficit or deficit in general,” point guard Javon Small. “We just didn’t respond the way we wanted to today but we’ll make sure we get back into the film.”

Pittsburgh is a good basketball team and it was on the road, but there are bigger challenges ahead.

“Tonight we’re obviously incredibly disappointed with how we played and how the game went tonight but this group is a good group and they’re going to bounce back we’re continue to grow and get better and better and tonight is a great learning opportunity for us. A lot of things there as a coaching staff, as a team that we’re going to get better at and move on and try to improve each day,” DeVries said.