After getting its nostril bloodied within the Yard Brawl rivalry sport at Pitt, West Virginia hopes to play the function of the bully Wednesday evening when it returns to Morgantown to face Iona.
As they put together to face the struggling Gaels (1-3) within the first-ever assembly of the groups, the Mountaineers (2-1) are smarting from a humbling 86-62 loss to the workforce they’ve performed essentially the most of their lengthy historical past.
It acquired so out of hand on Friday evening that after West Virginia fell behind by 31 factors with 5 minutes left on the clock, Pitt followers started chanting, “Go house, Mountaineers.”
“I am extremely dissatisfied,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries mentioned. “There isn’t any strategy to sugar coat it.”
The Mountaineers had been out-rebounded 45-32 and their high scorer Tucker DeVries tallied simply six factors on 2-of-10 taking pictures.
One optimistic was the play of freshman Jonathan Powell, who hit 4 3-pointers on his strategy to scoring 16 factors.
“It is a lengthy, lengthy season, however we’re going to work at it,” Darian DeVries mentioned. “The coaches and the gamers, we acquired to get some issues discovered.”
Whereas West Virginia was getting hammered on Friday evening, Iona was incomes its first win, 62-59, over Vermont because the Gaels rallied from a 15-point deficit within the second half.
Dejour Reaves scored 22 factors and James Patterson added 18 factors to guide the offense. The Gaels additionally dominated the boards, 45-21, incomes 18 second-chance factors to 2 for the Catamounts.
One of many few downsides was that Iona dedicated 19 turnovers.
“We’re nonetheless not used to taking part in with one another,” Iona second-year coach Tobin Anderson mentioned of his workforce, which has a wholly new roster.
Reaves, who’s averaging a team-high 15.5 factors, is a switch from Northern Colorado. Second-leading scorer Clarence Rupert (10.5 factors per sport) arrived this 12 months from Southern Illinois.
“We’ll compete down at West Virginia. I do know we are going to,” Anderson mentioned. “Our guys are enthusiastic about that sport.”
–Area Degree Media
