West Virginia erased a five-point deficit with 20 seconds remaining, forcing overtime against No. 3 Gonzaga, and never trailed in the extra session to claim a marquee early season victory, 86-78, in a Battle 4 Atlantis opening-round game from Paradise Island, Bahamas.
“Our guys did a great job tonight,” first-year West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said. “Unfortunately, at Pitt in our first road game, it didn’t go the way we wanted. We also told the team that’s part of maturing as a team. You have to make sure you learn from it and the next time it comes up, fix it. Tonight you could feel a different mindset in the huddle. There was no panic. They were very composed. We had terrific senior leadership from our guys, continued to remain confident and poised, and very matter of fact in what we needed to do to come out on top.”
After the Bulldogs’ Ryan Nembhard made two free throws with 25 seconds left in regulation for a 71-66 lead, the Mountaineers’ got a Tucker DeVries three-pointer from out front to pull to within a pair. WVU (4-1) then applied full court pressure that generated a Nolan Hickman turnover and led to DeVries being fouled on his way to the basket. The senior made both free throws to tie the game at 71, and the Mountaineers came up with the necessary subsequent stop to force overtime when Khalif Battle turned it over with time winding down.
On that final possession, Nembhard was off the court as he was unable to re-enter the contest with no time coming off the clock since he had been taken out.
“We got a decent look and I was able to make it. The guys up front on the press did a great job of speeding them up,” Tucker DeVries said. “They were kind of in a rush to get across half court and a little loose, happened to get a steal and make a play. Fortunate that I was able to make two free throws and continue to play.”
West Virginia jumped in front on the opening possession of the extra session when Amani Hansberry found Javon Small for an uncontested layup. While Gonzaga pulled even on a Dusty Stromer fast break bucket, the Mountaineers went in front for good on two Toby Okani free throws at the 3-minute mark. WVU went on to make 9-of-10 free-throw attempts in overtime, including two from Hansberry for a 77-73 lead.
Small’s driving layup with 1:47 remaining left Gonzaga (5-1) facing a 79-75 deficit, and a steal and dunk from Sencire Harris for an 84-76 lead with inside 30 seconds to play all but wrapped up the result.
WVU struggled shooting throughout the first half and went to the intermission with a 39-31 deficit after making 9-of-30 shots. Outside of Hansberry, who accounted for 10 of the Mountaineers’ first 12 points, West Virginia shot 5 for 21.
After the deficit got to 43-33 — the largest it was all game — the Mountaineers abruptly answered with 12 unanswered points, a stretch highlighted by Small’s seven points, including his go-ahead driving basket with 14:51 remaining for a 45-43 lead.
Neither team led by more than five the remainder of regulation, with Hickman’s three at the 7:56 mark the start of an 8-0 Gonzaga spurt that turned a five-point deficit into a 61-58 advantage.
That run ended on a pair of Ben Gregg free throws, and 19 seconds later, Small’s jumper brought West Virginia to within one. The Bulldogs’ Braden Huff went on to score on consecutive possessions, and the Bulldogs led 67-64 at that point, but the Mountaineers battled back starting with two Small free throws with 1:07 remaining.
Still, the deficit was five before DeVries’ triple and the pivotal Bulldog turnover led to it being erased.
“As we’ve gotten more comfortable together, we have more confidence in each other. Today was a step in the right direction,” Tucker DeVries said. “We had a lot of things to improve on from that Pitt game and that was the best thing for us going forward because we really dug on and improved on what we needed to improve on. That was leaning on each other more offensively and defensively and the progress showed a lot tonight.”
Gonzaga was held to 40 percent shooting, including 2 of 10 in overtime.
“Not giving them second-chance opportunities, stopping them in transition and keeping the ball in front of us, trying to be in those gaps, we did pretty well,” Small said.
The Bulldogs finished with only nine fast break points and WVU held a 42-36 rebounding edge, helping the Mountaineers overcome the Bulldogs’ 30-2 advantage in bench scoring.
“Our entire game plan was to not make this a transition game,” coach DeVries said. “As much as we like to run, this is a game we felt like they were better at it than us and we needed a different strategy if we were going to come out on top. Our guys did a great job both halves of trying to control the tempo and play at the pace we want them to play.”
Small finished with a game-high 31 points and seven rebounds.
“I know I played pretty well and did what the team needed me to do,” Small said. “All-around, I had a pretty good game, but the win is more important.”
Hansberry scored 19 points to go with eight rebounds and DeVries added 16 points, six boards and four assists. Okani scored 10 and Harris added eight to go with six rebounds.
Small, DeVries and Harris all logged 42 minutes.
Huff made 9-of-14 shots and scored 19 points to pace the Bulldogs. Battle scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half. Hickman added 13 points.
Nembhard was 1 for 10 with seven points, but had 12 assists and one turnover.
The Mountaineers battle Louisville (4-1) at noon Thursday on ESPN for a spot in the Battle 4 Atlantis title game. The Cardinals handled Indiana 89-61 in the first game Wednesday.
“It’s not a statement or anything. Our focus has been on trying to be the best version of ourselves,” coach DeVries said. “We don’t listen to a lot of outside stuff. We know what’s going on in practice every day and the progress we need to make. By no means have we arrived or anything. We had a great win, a great 45 minutes. But we still have plenty of room to grow into and we look forward to continuing to do that.”
Battle 4 Atlantis Scores/Schedule
Wednesday, November 27
- Game 1: Louisville 89, No. 15 Indiana 61
- Game 2: West Virginia 86, No. 4 Gonzaga 78 (OT)
- Game 3: Oklahoma 79, Providence 77
- Game 4: No. 23 Arizona 104, Davidson 71
Thursday, November 28
- Game 5: Louisville vs. West Virginia, noon
- Game 6: No. 15 Indiana vs. No. 4 Gonzaga, 2:30 p.m.
- Game 7: Oklahoma vs. No. 23 Arizona, 5 p.m.
- Game 8: Providence vs. Davidson, 7:30 p.m.