PITTSBURGH — Darian DeVries was eager to see how West Virginia would respond to its first test away from home in Friday’s rivalry affair against Pittsburgh at Petersen Events Center.
The answer came early, though it was anything but the one the Mountaineers’ first-year head coach was hoping for as he discovered his team was outmatched against the Panthers.
West Virginia shot 30 percent in the opening half and missed its first eight three-pointers while being out-rebounded by 13 through 20 minutes. In turn, Pitt doubled up the Mountaineers and never looked back, dealing West Virginia its first loss under DeVries, 86-62.
“I love our group. Tonight, obviously incredibly disappointed in how we played and how the game went, but this is a good group,” DeVries said. “We’re going to bounce back and continue to grow and get better. Tonight is a great learning opportunity for us. There are a lot of things as a coaching staff and team to get better at.”
The Mountaineers (2-1) trailed 10-6 at the first media timeout and 18-8 at the second one, failing to generate rhythm offensively and struggling to stop the Panthers from doing just that.
“We had some decent looks early in the game that didn’t go down and we could never really get some traction to get back in it as the game went on,” DeVries said.
Just before the midway point of the half, Cameron Corhen put in a follow-up basket to up the Pitt (4-0) lead to 25-12. Three-pointers on successive possessions from Pitt’s Guillermo Diaz Graham and Damian Dunn left WVU facing a 35-14 deficit 7 minutes before halftime.
Although WVU ran off eight of the next 11 points and pulled to within 16 on a Tucker DeVries triple, the Mountaineers were outscored 6-0 over the final 1:02 of the half, including a Javon Small turnover in the final seconds that led to Dunn scoring at the rim just before time expired for a 44-22 Pitt advantage.
“We were dialed up right from the beginning. Our guys understood there’s a different energy in the building and we’re playing against a rival from a really good conference,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said.
The half had its share of forgetful moments for the Mountaineers. DeVries shot 1 for 6, Sencire Harris was 1 for 5 and missed three uncontested threes and Toby Okani shot an airball on consecutive foul shots — the Mountaineers’ only free-throw attempts of the half.
No WVU player had more than four points at halftime.
“We didn’t get enough pressure on the rim whether it be through post ups or drives,” coach DeVries said. “We have to find a way to get to the rim and put ourselves at the free-throw line. We didn’t do a great job with that.”
In need of a run at the outset of the second half to get back into the contest, West Virginia instead dug itself a deeper hole.
Dunn opened the second-half scoring with a triple and made another one from long range with 13:03 to play that allowed Pitt to hold its largest lead to that point — 62-31.
The Mountaineers never got the deficit inside 22 after halftime as the Panthers maintained their distance and then some to claim a comfortable victory in the Backyard Brawl for a second straight season.
“I love how we came out after halftime. We took a step forward today showing growth and maturity to be able to sustain it and extend it,” Capel said.
The Panthers shot nearly 50 percent (28 for 58) and had a 45-32 rebounding edge in large part due to the Mountaineers’ shooting less than 39 percent (24 for 62). West Virginia made 18-of-33 two-point field goals, but only 6-of-29 threes.
“There were possessions we got out-rebounded, but I didn’t feel like this was a size issue tonight,” coach DeVries said. “They got a lot of good, clean opportunities in that first half. They end up with a pretty good rebounding margin because we had a lot of misses for them to go get.”
Dunn’s 23 points led all players and he needed only 12 field-goal attempts for the feat.
Ishmael Leggett added 15 points, Corhen scored 14 and Diaz Graham contributed 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for a double-double. The 7-footer had to leave the game 36 seconds in for a brief time after he was inadvertently hit in the face by WVU’s Amani Hansberry.
DeVries was held to six points on 2-for-10 shooting before fouling out. Hansberry also fouled out in the loss.
“Wanted to stay on his hip and be discipline, not fall for shot fakes and chase him around to make him take contested twos,” Dunn said of the defensive mindset against WVU’s top scorer entering the night. “Do your best to war over screens and know that you’re going to be chasing him off a lot of staggers and stay attached.”
Freshman Jonathan Powell scored 13 of his team-high 16 points after halftime in defeat. The swingman made 6-of-12 shots, including four threes.
Small was the Mountaineers’ only other double-figure scorer with 12 points.
“I expect us to respond every time we get punched in the mouth. I expect us to be able to punch back,” Small said. “We got punched in the mouth today and didn’t fight back the way we wanted to. We have to get better for next time.”