What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over Oklahoma State

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries gives his initial thoughts on the Mountaineers win over the Cowboys

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

The West Virginia Mountaineers (11-2, 2-0) handled the Oklahoma State Cowboys (8-5, 0-2) Saturday afternoon 69-50.

The Mountaineers going stagnant in the second half

We certainly took our foot off the gas in the second half, sometimes that’s human nature. We talked about it at halftime to try and fight it but we weren’t nearly as aggressive at the offensive end, especially in transition and we got a little tired as the second half wore on – we were short a couple of guys the second half, so we couldn’t get some subs in the way we normally would. So, we kind of had to slow it down. It got closer, obviously, you start to feel it a little bit, but I thought the guys did a nice job those last couple minutes of making enough plays to finish it off.

Building a 27-point halftime time lead

I thought the first half, I thought defensively the guys were terrific were really locked in. We took a lot of their driving angles away and did a nice job there and we were able to get steals and defensive rebounds and get out in transition and push.

Started off, really, a slower game – seven to four and then I thought the defensive turned our offense up and we were able to get some transition threes and transition layups – (Senior guard) Javon (Small) (freshman guard) JP (Jonathan Powell), Sencire got his first couple of threes of the year – that was good to see too.

Amani Hansberry returning to the floor

It was good to get him out there. He hasn’t been able to practice much, so we limited his minutes a little bit. I thought he did a nice job under the circumstances and he made a couple of baskets there in the second half. Hopefully, that will continue to get better for him and continue to grow those minutes back out again.

Jonathan Powell shooting 5-7 from three-point range for 17 points

From the moment he walked on campus, he’s pretty confident. He’s growing in confidence every single day. What he’s done a really good job of is he’s learned to slow himself down and that’s true of a lot of freshmen. Even when he was making some earlier in the year, some of his inconsistencies, like in the Bahamas where he struggled a little bit, he was just a little rushed. He was trying to hit five threes on one shot. Now, he’s done a much better job the last couple weeks of – we’ve talked to him, ‘you’re six-six, just slow down and shoot it like you’re playing Horse and if they block it, it will go out of bounds its still going to be our ball and I think he’s done a nice job of that.