Dec 23, 2024
VICTORY — WVU forward Toby Okani (left) had 13 points and 12 rebounds Sunday in a 67-46 victory against Mercyhurst inside the Coliseum. — Benjamin Powell
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia officially moved to Plan C Sunday, the result of losing starting center Amani Hansberry to an apparent ankle injury in the opening seconds of a 67-46 victory against Mercyhurst inside the Coliseum.
Hansberry got tied up with Lakers’ guard Shemar Rathan-Mayes under the basket going for a rebound and both players landed hard on the floor.
Rathan-Mayes remained on the floor writhing in pain, but Hansberry got up and limped back up the floor. He was soon subbed out of the game and headed to the locker room. When he returned, his right foot was in a medical boot.
The good news: “I don’t think it’s anything serious,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “He should be good.”
The bad news: Without Hansberry, the Mountaineers’ depth is seriously challenged, as is DeVries’ play-calling sheet.
“It just gets trickier, because every time someone moves into another spot, it shrinks the things you’re allowed to do from a playbook standpoint,” DeVries said. “Amani’s advantage is his versatility and his ability to step out and shoot. That eliminates all the packages where we’re trying to get five out in space.”
Hansberry joined injured teammates Tucker DeVries and Jayden Stone on the bench. DeVries missed his third game due to injury, while Stone has yet to play in the regular season.
Even against Mercyhurst (6-9) — a private Catholic school located in Erie, Pa. and in its first season as a Division I school — a limited WVU is going to look a little befuddled.
“Our halfcourt offense was not very fun to watch,” Darian DeVries said. “I don’t know what you guys thought, but from what I saw, it wasn’t very good.”
It was just good enough, as WVU (9-2) closed out its nonconference schedule with the same amount of wins the Mountaineers had all of last season.
That’s progress, sure, but what comes next is 20 grueling games against Big 12 teams, beginning with No. 8 Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 31.
“Since the summer, it’s been preached to us that our margins are small and we have to execute,” said WVU forward Toby Okani, who had his first double-double with the Mountaineers with 13 points and 12 rebounds. “We have to be ready for anything that’s thrown at us.”
Javon Small was his usual self with 19 points and seven assists and Eduardo Andre came off the bench to fill in for Hansberry. He scored 14 points and added six rebounds.
“I think he did good,” Darian DeVries said of Andre. “They did a lot of switching, which keeps you out of some rhythm, but I think we were able to throw it in there some and he was able to make plays for himself. He got fouled a few times then had a couple nice assists on kick-outs.”
What the Mountaineers basically did was lock down on defense. Mercyhurst was held to just 28.3 percent (15 of 53) shooting. It was the second time this season the Mountaineers held an opponent to less than 30 percent from the floor.
“We definitely had to turn it up on defense and we tried to speed them up a little bit,” Andre said. “We had to force some turnovers. That was an emphasis to us that we had to turn it up on defense.”
WVU was efficient, shooting 48.1 percent (25 of 52), but struggled behind the 3-point line, making only 5 of 19.
“That probably wasn’t our cleanest game by any means,” Darian DeVries said. “The thing I did like about the way we played tonight was that I thought defensively, especially in the second half when we were struggling to get any type of rhythm offensively, our defense kept us in the game.”
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