What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over Utah

The West Virginia Mountaineers (15-8, 6-6) handled the Utah Utes (13-10, 5-7) Saturday evening 72-61.

Senior guard Javon Small shooting mere 2-5 from the field but produces 14 points and eight assists

All Javon cares about is winning, and tonight they put pretty good focus on ‘Von and not letting him get a lot of clean opportunities but I thought ‘Von did a terrific job of taking what the defense gave him and was able to capitalize on some of the, whether it be the hard shows or the doubles that allowed somebody else to be open behind him, and then those the other guys I thought did a really good job of stepping up.

When we get (freshman guard Jonathan Powell) JP and (sophomore forward) Amani (Hansberry) and (senior guard) Joe (Yesufu), when they get involved in the scoring the way the did, Toby in the first half as well, that gives us such a big spark as an offense.

Going up against a bigger Utah team

It was certainly a physical game as most night are, so you got to bring your lunch pail every night and I thought our guys really battled and I thought Utah really battled, so it was a tough hard fought game. Utah’s got great size all the way across, so we knew this was going to be a game where we were going to have to get into some bodies and be physical and fight for rebounds because if we didn’t, we don’t have near the size across the line.

The impact of senior guard Toby Okani (9 pts, 4 rebs, 2 asts)

I thought in the first half he was terrific. He had that big block, came down, and hit a three. He had a huge offensive rebound that he just went and snagged above everybody else and then kicked it out to Joe (Yesufu) for a three. Then he had a play right in front of our bench on a loose ball that he dove for and came up with. Those are the types of things that Toby can do. When he puts his mindset to it like that, that is the type of winning plays he can make, and he had a huge impact, especially in that first half.

Jonathan Powell’s 11 points and seven rebounds

I thought one of the big plays of the night is we’re up eight and he’s picking up full court because they were having different guys bringing the ball up and he gets a strip and picks it up and goes down to get the dunk to put us up ten. That’s a big play. Again, we’re talking about those winning type plays, that’s what winning is. Its not always just the threes you make and that’s where he’s having an impact, and then he had seven rebounds tonight. So, good all around game by him.