DeVries Recaps Strong First Win in Italy

West Virginia took care of business in game one of the Italy tour.

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

The West Virginia men's basketball team tipped off their Italy tour today and came out with a 78-53 win over BC Zalgiris Kaunas, a professional club in Lithuania. A box score has not been provided, but head coach Darian DeVries did offer some analysis of today's game, as posted on X.

"It was great for us to get out and play somebody else. It's been a good summer, but I know our guys were excited to get out there and play together. We got off to a little bit of a slow start, as we expected. Just with the travel and things, but I thought the second quarter and the third quarter, I thought we played really well. We got the ball moving. Our defensive intensity really picked up, and had some really good ball movement. I think we got up 72-29 and then were able to kind of pull all of the top six, seven, eight guys out and able to get a lot of guys minutes there to finish the fourth quarter and play that whole stretch there with everybody on the bench. All around, it was great. A lot of guys got great minutes, got good time, good experience and I'm very happy with the way we came out and approached it."

WVU will play its next game against Orange1 Bassano on August 6th at 12 p.m. EST in Florence. Italy.

🎥 Hear from @Coach_DeVries following today’s win in Italy pic.twitter.com/KgA5uTkopx

— WVU Men's Basketball (@WVUhoops) August 3, 2024

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