Cover Photo: WVU Athletics
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — The West Virginia Mountaineers got another huge victory that will help bolster their chances to make the 2025 NCAA Tournament, beating the Utah Utes, 72-61 to move to 15-8 overall and 6-6 in the Big 12 Conference.
The Mountaineers were led by sophomore forward/center Amani Hansberry, who had one of the best games of his young collegiate career with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Javon Small had 14 points and 8 assists and Joseph Yesufu had 14 points off the bench. Jonathan Powell had 11 points (all in the second half) and Toby Okani added 9 points and 4 rebounds, and had the best sequence of the season, blocking a shot and then hitting a three pointer in the corner for tonight’s play of the game.
PLAY OF THE GAME:
Sports Center Top 10 candidate! Top sequence of the season for the Mountaineers! pic.twitter.com/aQowDD5y9F
— The Voice of Morgantown (@voicemorgantown) February 8, 2025
At halftime of the game, ESPN’s Bracketology’s Joe Lunardi said that the Mountaineers are in “decent shape” but clearly not a lock to make the tournament right now. However, Lunardi went on to say that if West Virginia “takes care of business and holds serve at the WVU Coliseum, they will be a tournament team, point, blank, period.”
West Virginia’s remaining home games are against BYU, Cincinnati, TCU and UCF. If the Mountaineers win those games, they will finish with 19 wins and 10 Big 12 Conference wins. In addition, although the remaining road games are tough, there are winnable games here too: at Baylor, Texas Tech, BYU, Utah. With that said, it appears that barring a complete collapse to end the season, the Mountaineers should make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2022-2023 Bob Huggins’ team that lost to Maryland in the 1st Round of the tournament.
