WVU Basketball Falls to BYU in Final Minute

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU basketball split a pair of games against state of Utah over the last three days, following up Saturday’s win over Utah with a 73-69 loss to BYU inside the Coliseum Tuesday evening.

In one of the hardest-fought contests of the season for the Mountaineers, BYU took the lead on a pair of free throws by Egor Demin with less than a minute to play and sealed the victory when Mihailo Boskovic converted an and-one with 10 seconds left.

With the win, the Cougars (16-6, 7-6 Big 12) avoided a third straight loss while West Virginia (15-9, 6-7) has not won back-to-back games since the beginning of January.

WVU started the game playing very well on offense, spreading the ball around and getting several players good looks. Toby Okani had four of the team’s first six makes as his nine early points led the Mountaineers to a 14-7 lead.

The Cougars responded with an 8-0 run to pull ahead, 15-14. Neither team led by more than four points for the rest of the first half as the teams played even for nearly 12 minutes.

After both offenses started strong, WVU opened 10-of-20 from the floor and BYU 8-of-18, the defenses started to take over as the first half wore on. BYU missed seven straight shots at one point, while WVU was 2-12 over the same stretch.

The Cougars thought they would go into halftime with the lead when Trey Stewart’s three-pointer put them up 32-31 with 17 seconds left. But WVU got the ball up the court quickly and Jonathan Powell connected on a wide-open shot from the corner at the buzzer, putting the Mountaineers ahead 34-32 at the break.

2 ties, 8 lead changes. @WVUhoops closes out the half with a three ball in the final seconds. We've got a ballgame on @CBSSportsNet pic.twitter.com/pzAkn7wBiR

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 12, 2025

Both teams came out of the break hot as West Virginia made its first four shots of the second half, including three three-pointers, but BYU also made its first four.

The teams traded every basket for the first eight minutes of the half. It wasn’t until Stewart made a layup and then a three-pointer that either team scored two consecutive field goals. That left the Mountaineers in a precarious position as their offense was playing well, but their lead stayed around five points for the entire time.

BYU finally broke through when Kanon Catchings made a trey to tie the game, 56-56, with nine minutes left. WVU scored the next six points with three straight makes, but the Cougars responded with a nine-point run to take their first lead in nearly 15 minutes, 65-62.

Joseph Yesufu converted an and-one to knot the game back up at 65-65 with 4:18 to play.

WVU led by one, 69-68, with two minutes left, but the Mountaineers did not score again. Demin made two free throws to give BYU the lead and Boskovic’s and-one sealed the win in the final seconds.

Okani led a balanced WVU offense with 16 points, followed by Yesufu and Powell with 11 each.

Egor Demin paced the Cougars with 14 points, with Catchings scoring 11.

WVU basketball goes back on the road for a game at Baylor Saturday at 2 p.m.