Small, Yesufu Key as WVU Basketball Holds Off Colorado

It was shaky, but WVU basketball got back to its winning ways, topping Colorado 78-70 on the road Sunday afternoon.

Rebounding from Tuesday’s loss to Arizona, No. 21 West Virginia (12-3, 3-1 Big 12) got double-digit points from Javon Small, Eduardo Andre, Joseph Yesufu and Jonathan Powell to begin its two-game road trip with a victory. 

Colorado (9-6, 0-4) lost a heart-breaker for the second game in a row. Trailing by 14 points in the second half, the Buffaloes cut the lead all the way down to just two points before ultimately losing by eight.

Small, the leading scorer in the conference, logged his seventh 20-point game of the season, finishing with a game-high 26 points. He began the second half by hitting three straight three-pointers in less than two minutes.

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Small’s third trey in the sequence put WVU up by 14 points, 49-35, but Colorado went on a big run to cut the lead down to two, 56-54. The Buffaloes outscored the Mountaineers 19-7 over a six-minute stretch in the second half. 11 of those points came from the free-throw line as fouls mounted for the Mountaineers. Andre and Sencire Harris both fouled out of the game.

That kind of second-half scoring drought has become all too common for the Mountaineers in recent weeks as the team has battled depth issues for several games in a row. Star senior Tucker DeVries missed his seventh-straight game with an upper-body injury. Freshman point guard KJ Tenner was out for the second game in a row.

After only using seven players against Arizona, WVU tried to lengthen its bench a bit by using walk-on Jake Auer to spell Small a couple of times in the first half.

An offensive rebound and dunk by Andre helped WVU finally shake out of the cold spell with seven minutes to play. 

Yesufu scored a season-high 18 points off the bench and almost single-handedly preserved WVU’s lead in the final minutes of play. From the four-minute mark, Yesufu scored eight straight points as the Mountaineers clung to their single-digit lead. It wasn’t until Small went to the free-throw line with 90 seconds left that someone other than Yseufu scored for WVU. Small made 5-6 free throws in the final two minutes to ice the game.

After turning the ball over 11 times in the first half, Colorado, the most turnover-prone team in the league, only turned it over three times in the second. The Buffaloes also went to the foul line 28 times, compared to just two times before halftime.

Small’s 26 points led all scorers as he made four three-pointers and 10 free throws. He also had a game-high seven assists. Yesufu scored a crucial 18 points off the bench, his second double-digiting output of the season. Andre scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half and was a perfect 5-5 from the floor before fouling out. Powell scored 10 first-half points but was shutout in the second half going 0-3 from the floor.

West Virginia, the top shot-blocking team in the conference, blocked just one shot in the game as any contested shot usually resulted in a whistle and a trip to the line.

Julian Hammond led Colorado with 21 points and Assane Diop was next with 15.

Sunday was the first-ever meeting between Colorado and West Virginia, who are now conference mates for the first time.

WVU’s road trip concludes at No. 12 Houston at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

For a related story, should WVU basketball offer Darian DeVries a contract extension this early in his tenure?