After getting its nose bloodied in the Backyard Brawl rivalry game at Pitt, West Virginia hopes to play the role of the bully Wednesday night when it returns to Morgantown to face Iona.
As they prepare to face the struggling Gaels (1-3) in the first-ever meeting of the teams, the Mountaineers (2-1) are smarting from a humbling 86-62 loss to the team they have played the most in their long history.
It got so out of hand on Friday night that after West Virginia fell behind by 31 points with five minutes left on the clock, Pitt fans began chanting, “Go home, Mountaineers.”
“I’m incredibly disappointed,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said. “There’s no way to sugar coat it.”
The Mountaineers were out-rebounded 45-32 and their top scorer Tucker DeVries tallied just six points on 2-of-10 shooting.
One positive was the play of freshman Jonathan Powell, who hit four 3-pointers on his way to scoring 16 points.
“It’s a long, long season, but we are going to work at it,” Darian DeVries said. “The coaches and the players, we got to get some things figured out.”
While West Virginia was getting hammered on Friday night, Iona was earning its first win, 62-59, over Vermont as the Gaels rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half.
Dejour Reaves scored 22 points and James Patterson added 18 points to lead the offense. The Gaels also dominated the boards, 45-21, earning 18 second-chance points to two for the Catamounts.
One of the few downsides was that Iona committed 19 turnovers.
“We’re still not used to playing with each other,” Iona second-year coach Tobin Anderson said of his team, which has an entirely new roster.
Reaves, who is averaging a team-high 15.5 points, is a transfer from Northern Colorado. Second-leading scorer Clarence Rupert (10.5 points per game) arrived this year from Southern Illinois.
“We’ll compete down at West Virginia. I know we will,” Anderson said. “Our guys are excited about that game.”
–Field Level Media
