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WVU Basketball Uses 2nd Half Run to Excite Home Crowd, Top Georgetown

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WVU basketball eduardo andre
Kelsie LeRose/WVSN

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A second-half run ignited the largest home crowd of the season as WVU basketball topped Georgetown 73-60 in the Big 12-Big East Battle Friday night inside the WVU Coliseum.

Georgetown (7-2) dictated the pace through much of the first half, taking the Mountaineers (6-2) out of their fast-paced transition game. As a result, the Hoyas most of the time before halftime.

The lead never grew to more than five points, however, as West Virginia also played effective defense.

Javon Small’s three-pointer with 5:05 to play put the Mountaineers up 23-22, their first lead in over 10 minutes. It didn’t last, however, as, even with the crowd getting excited, Georgetown’s Jayden Epps hit a three-pointer of his own on the other end of the court.

Malik Mack connected from range to put Georgetown up 30-25 with 1:31 to play, but he said something to the WVU student section on his way back up the court and was given a technical foul. 

West Virginia seemingly started to pick up steam early in the second half as three-pointers from Toby Okani and Tucker DeVries cut the Georgetown lead to 38-36. Mack hit a jumper and then a three-pointer of his own to try and slow WVU’s roll, but the Mountaineers responded with an extended scoring run to take the game over.

After Mack’s triple, WVU went on a 19-2 run that spanned six minutes and forced Georgetown coach Ed Colley to use two timeouts. Eduardo Andre, who was questionable to play in the game, registered three blocks during the run.

KJ Tenner sank two free throws to tie the game 43-43 and DeVries later hit a three-pointer to put WVU up 53-43 and ignite the team’s largest home crowd of the season.

The Mountaineers’ lead hovered around double-digits for the remainder of the game as Georgetown was never able to make one final push.

Small scored 26 points to lead the Mountaineers while DeVries added 15 and Okani chipped in 11. SenCire Harris pulled down nine rebounds while Andre finished with four rejections.

Epps paced the Hoyas with 17 points with freshman big man Thomas Sorber adding 13.

WVU basketball hosts North Carolina Central next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

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