Foul Trouble Hamstrung WVU Basketball in Loss to Colorado

WVU basketball found itself in a precarious position midway through the second half of its Big 12 Tournament game against Colorado on Wednesday.

Mired in another offensive slump, the Mountaineers’ best offensive player couldn’t get any shots up and their next two best options were sitting on the bench in foul trouble.

West Virginia led Colorado by as many as 13 points in the first half but struggled mightily on offense after halftime in a 67-60 loss in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

There was a stretch between the first and second halves where the Mountaineers shot just 1-of-14 from the floor over nearly 11 minutes of game time. WVU also missed nine straight three-pointers at one point, not making its first triple in the second half until the final minute.

During much of that time, Amani Hansberry and Jonathan Powell were sitting on the bench in foul trouble. WVU’s second- and third-leading scorers, Hansberry and Powell each picked up their third foul within the first few minutes of the second half.

“They’ve got certain guys that can really shoot the ball and they’ve got other guys that maybe struggle to shoot the ball, so we knew zone (defense) was going to be part of our gameplan tonight,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “We played it and it was pretty effective.”

Hansberry (35) and Powell (63) are second and third on the Mountaineers in three-pointers made. With both off the floor, the Buffaloes were comfortable going into a zone defense because their replacements, Eduardo Andre and Toby Okani, aren’t threats from the perimeter.

The obvious solution for WVU would be to run the offense exclusively through All-Big 12 first-teamer Javon Small, but Colorado had a plan for that. Boyle used three different players to guard Small throughout the game and ran CU’s offense specifically to tire him out.

“The thing we did in the second half was change our offense to get him chasing one of our guys,” Boyle said. “Whoever he was guarding, we were going to run off screens on the baseline and make him expend energy on defense.”

After scoring 13 points in the first 12 minutes of the game, Small only scored two points over the next 25 minutes of game time. 

“I came out hot in the first half and in the second half, I just came out a little bit slower,” Small said. “I’ve got to do a better job of that.”

Small attempted just one shot in the first 17 minutes of the second half. His first made field goal of the second half came with less than three minutes left. He made a pair of three-pointers in the final minute to finish with 23 points.

“I’ve got to be more aggressive throughout the whole game,” Small said. “I’m a natural playmaker before a scorer, in my opinion, so I just thought I could make the right play by dishing the ball off, but I’ve got to be more aggressive.”

Fouls not only hamstrung WVU’s offense but also its defense as Colorado pushed the issue by repeatedly passing the ball inside to forward Elijah Malone. The Mountaineers didn’t want to pick up more fouls by being aggressive with Malone and they didn’t want to bring a double team and open up shooters.

“They’ve been pretty good all year when you bring the double team,” WVU coach Darian DeVries said. “A little bit of the foul trouble played a part in it and we weren’t quite as aggressive defensively as we needed to be.”

Colorado shot 60.9% in the second half, with Malone scoring 12 of his team-high 14 points.

The focus for WVU basketball now shifts to selection Sunday, when the Mountaineers expect to hear their name called for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.