WVU Basketball Overcomes Early Deficit, Survives Late to Win at Utah

WVU basketball battled back from a double-digit first-half deficit to win the second game of its road trip, 71-69, at Utah Tuesday night.

The win over Utah (16-14, 8-11) puts the Mountaineers (18-12, 9-10) in prime position to make the NCAA Tournament with one regular season game remaining. Utah was led by interim head coach Josh Eilert, who coached the Mountaineers last year after spending a total of 17 years with WVU.

Utah started red-hot on offense, making its first five shots and six of its first eight, including a trio of three-pointers from Gabe Madsen. The senior scored 13 points in the first nine minutes as the Utes led by a dozen, 19-7.

The Mountaineers started just 3-13 from the floor until making three-straight shots to cut Utah’s lead to 19-14. From there, neither team scored for the next four minutes. A three-pointer from Jonathan Powell finally ended the combined drought and brought WVU to within two points, 19-17. During that stretch, Utah missed nine straight shots, while WVU missed six in a row.

Tuesday’s first half resembled the first half of WVU’s game at BYU from Saturday. In a similarly nother low-scoring affair, the Cougars closed the first half on a 10-point run as WVU faded down the stretch.

The Mountaineers managed to flip the script a bit against Utah, closing the half on an 11-4 run to lead by a single point, 30-29, at the break. Javon Small’s three-pointer with 42 seconds left gave WVU its first lead since the score was 2-0 in the first minute.

West Virginia’s lead didn’t last long, however, as Utah scored the first four points of the second half to regain the advantage. Eduardo Andre, who played the second half with gauze up his nose after taking an elbow to the face just before halftime, tied the game, 36-36, with a layup three minutes into the half.

Utah then took the lead with an 8-0 run as West Virginia missed six straight attempts from the floor. WVU battled back from that deficit and re-took the lead seven minutes later on another three-pointer from Powell that made it 51-50.

Fouls started to dictate the game as the teams combined to score eight straight points from the line with the game tied 58-58. 

A three-pointer from Small and a dunk from Andre gave WVU a 63-58 lead as Utah had not made a basket in four minutes. Madsen broke the drought with a three-pointer, but WVU’s Joseph Yesufu responded in kind on the other end of the court.

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— WVU Men's Basketball (@WVUhoops) March 5, 2025

WVU led by two with under a minute to play when Small’s floater gave the Mountaineers some breathing room with 35 seconds to play. An inadvertent whistle gave the ball back to WVU and seemed to prematurely end the Utes’ night.

Yesufu hit a pair of free throws to put WVU up six, but Utah hit a three-pointer and then stole the inbounds pass and made a layup to pull within one, 70-69, with one second left. Madsen’s half-court shot at the buzzer was partially blocked as WVU held on to win by two.

Small powered West Virginia with 18 points and seven assists. Amani Hansberry and Yesufu finished with 12 points each, while Powell had 10. 

Madsen led Utah with 23 points, while Ezra Ausar scored 11 with nine coming from the free throw line and Mike Sharavjamts scored 12, all in the second half. 

WVU basketball concludes the regular season at home against UCF Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.