WVU Basketball Makes Crown Championship With Sharp Shooting

WVU Basketball advanced to the College Basketball Crown championship game on Saturday, April 4, defeating the Creighton Blue Jays 87-70 in Las Vegas behind 12 made three-pointers, four from senior Treysen Eaglestaff.

The win secured the Mountaineers an additional $100,000 in NIL money for this season’s roster, setting them up to play Oklahoma in the final.

Honor Huff, who led the comeback win in the quarterfinals, established West Virginia as a long distance threat in the early minutes, sinking threes on consecutive possessions to put them in front 8-0. DJ Thomas knocked down his first three soon thereafter and went on to lead the Mountaineers with 20 points.

Despite their focus on three-point shooting — of their 66 shots taken, 30 came from beyond the arc — West Virginia still managed to make shots at an efficient clip, making 23 of 36 twos (63.9 percent) and 40 percent of their threes on the day.

They also managed to avoid cold spells, never letting Creighton close within more than three points. The Blue Jays did so three times in the first half: on two of those occasions, Jasper Floyd and Eaglestaff sank immediate threes to prevent any hint of a rally.

Creighton managed to draw 20 fouls to the Mountaineers’ 12, taking 12 more free throws as a result, but an overreliance on three-point shooting (and an ugly 6-of-25 line) helped even out the disparity.

Just as West Virginia seemed ready to run away with an 8-0 run in the second half, Creighton reeled the Mountaineers in with a matching burst. Eaglestaff responded with two threes to right the ship, and the Blue Jays never made it back within single digits.

WVU Basketball will face Oklahoma at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 5 in the tournament finale with an additional $300,000 on the line.