Everything Darian DeVries Said Following West Virginia's Overtime Loss to Louisville

Darian DeVries recaps WVU semifinal loss in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

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Despite another valiant effort, the West Virginia Mountaineers fell short in overtime to the Louisville Cardinals in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis. by a 79-70 score. WVU had a chance to win it at the buzzer in regulation, but Amani Hansberry missed a wide-open three, which sent the game to overtime.

Shortly after the game, WVU head coach Darian DeVries met with the media to break down what went wrong and how the foul trouble impacted the game.

If the team got tired at the end of the game

“I don’t think we ran out of gas. We’re not going to use that (as an excuse). I thought Louisville did a nice job, made some plays, and were able to get to the free-throw line. There were certainly plenty of opportunities there that we could’ve capitalized on to come out on top.”

Mixing up lineups while dealing with foul trouble

“We certainly had to have some more unique lineups than we’ve had in this young season, and some guys in some spots that haven’t played a lot. But I thought the guys came in and did a good job of in some roles that maybe they weren’t as familiar with, but that’s part of the game to be ready when your opportunity comes and I thought our guys did that tonight.”

The final possession of regulation

“We probably got started a little late on that possession. We would have liked to get started a second or two earlier, but that had been working well for us getting Javon (Small) and Amani (Hansberry) out in a two-man game out in space. They were trapping it some, so if they were going to trap it on that possession we were going to get a clean look from Amani. If they didn’t and they tried to play one-on-one, we were going to get Von on a big hopefully going downhill.”

Chucky Hepburn consistently getting to the free-throw line

“I thought he did a good job of just being the aggressor. We messed up a few switches there where we wanted to keep the ball in front and had a little bit of indecision which kind of allowed him to get into the paint. But again, at the end of those drives, we’ve just got to do a better job of making sure we stay vertical and don’t bail guys out and put them at the line.”

The Mountaineers will be back in action today battling for a third-place finish in the Battle 4 Atlantis against the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona fell to Oklahoma last night 82-77 in their semifinal game. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. EST on ESPN2.

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