MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia trimmed a 17-point second-half deficit down to just five, but BYU held off WVU’s late rally to defeat the Mountaineers, 86-73 Saturday night in front of 11,753 fans at the Coliseum.
With the loss, West Virginia has reached the midway point of Big 12 play with a 3-6 conference record.
The Cougars scored 19 second chance points and buried 13 three-point field goals while WVU countered with just eight triples.
“It was a testament to our resiliency and our maturity as a team that we hit the shots that we needed to hit. And we got the stops that we needed,” said BYU senior guard Spencer Johnson.
“At the end of the day, they make 13 3s. We make eight. It doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that threes are worth more than twos,” said WVU head coach Josh Eilert.
Playing without 6-foot-11 junior Aly Khalifa due to illness, BYU forward Fousseyni Traore scored a season-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field. The 24-point effort was one of his career-best.
“They make my life super-easy by finding me and making the easy pass. I am just super-excited to go to work,” said Traore.
“All credit to him in this game. He made it tough for me and Pat [Suemnick]. He just played a really good game,” said WVU fifth year center Jesse Edwards.
“Without Khalifa, they did some different things against us that we probably weren’t ready for. Credit to them and their approach to the game today,” Eilert said.
“Jesse is not a hundred percent. When you try to stop a guy that size, you are allowed an arm-bar. But your wrist is right there. Sure, he is still trying to protect that wrist and there is still some pain there. It is not uncommon. But it is still where we are at with it.”
The first half was tightly contested until the Cougars scored the final eight points to take a 38-29 lead into the locker room. BYU outscored WVU by eight points in the first 6:16 of the second half to build a game-high 17-point lead at 56-39.
WVU crept back into the contest with an 11-2 run. Kerr Kriisa scored 20 of his team-best 23 points in the second half to spark West Virginia’s rally. The Mountaineers would later close within five points with 5:26 to play. However, they could not draw any closer.
On consecutive possessions, BYU connected on threes from the top of the key to quell WVU’s burst. Johnson banked in a triple with the shot clock winding down. A minute later, Trevin Knell hit a three and was fouled, giving BYU a 73-65 lead.
“Whether you can recover from it is the key,” Eilert. “Adversity hits, you are in a groove and on a roll, things are going your way and then a shot like that goes in. Sure, it is going to hit your confidence. There were a couple of those down the stretch that were demoralizing.”
BYU scored 48 points in the second half. That total is tied for the second-most WVU has allowed this season.
“A team like that, you have to stick to every shooter as much as you can. When they have seven, eight of them that all do the same thing and only that, it is kind of hard to stop especially when they have you running around the entire time,” said WVU fifth year guard RaeQuan Battle.
“It is mainly us though. We have to take more pride in taking away the three and staying in front of our man and taking more pride in one-on-one opportunities on the defensive end.”
“There’s so many things you can look at and analyze defensively where we made mistakes,” Eilert said. “Credit to them. They see a defensive miscue and they take advantage of it. A lot of teams, you can recover. BYU, consequently, they made us pay for our defensive mistakes.”
Fifth year forward Akok Akok did not play for the first time since making his debut against Pittsburgh on December 6.
“That was a medical issue,” Eilert said. “They were uncomfortable with him going at this time. I can’t get into the specifics. It had nothing to do with him personally or my decision whatsoever.”
Edwards scored 16 points for West Virginia while Battle added 14.
Richie Saunders scored 17 points for the Cougars. Johnson (15) and Jaxson Robinson (12) also reached double-digits in scoring.
No. 22 BYU (16-5, 4-4 Big 12) was making their first trip to Morgantown since 1947.
“They are certainly headed in the right direction,” said BYU head coach Mark Pope of the Mountaineers. “They are a terrific, terrific basketball team.
“It was a super-special treat for us to work into this gym. The home of ‘The Logo’ and Rod Thorn and Hot Rod Hundley and this incredible fanbase, it was super-special for us to come in here.”
West Virginia (8-14) enters an off week. They will return to action next Saturday at Texas.
“It is time for a week off,” Eilert said. “We need to get our legs under us and work on what we can work on. Especially going into a two-game road trip. It would be nice to be fresh going into two very challenging games at Texas and TCU.”
Morgantown High School alumnus and WVU Sports Hall of Fame member Jay Jacobs called his final game after nearly five decades before the microphone calling the action for Mountaineer basketball. He was honored during a media timeout in the first half.
Morgantown H.S. alumnus Jay Jacobs will call his final game with Tony Caridi tonight.
Jacobs, a 2023 WVU Sports Hall of Fame indcutee, has been an analyst for nearly five decades.
He will be recognized during the first media timeout. pic.twitter.com/t0yDuUAm8w
— Joe Brocato (@joebrowvm) February 3, 2024