Joseph Yesufu leads No. 21 WVU past Colorado, Mountaineers 2-0 on road in Big 12 play

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Jan. 12—MORGANTOWN — There will come a time when the winter winds decide to quit blowing and the snow melts into the ground.

If the 21st-ranked WVU men’s basketball team is still clawing and scratching for a berth into the NCAA tournament by then, the Mountaineers need to send a gigantic thank you to Joseph Yesufu.

The senior guard, who came into the season rehabbing from a hip injury and buried on the depth chart, handed the Mountaineers a gritty and critical road 78-70 win Sunday against Colorado inside the CU Events Center.

“Joe had a really huge second half for us, ” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said on his postgame radio show. “He’s done a great job of keeping himself and ready and waiting for that opportunity. We needed his speed and his ability to get to the rim in that second half.”

BOX SCORE Aside from remaining in the upper echelon of the Big 12 standings—WVU is currently in a three-way tie for fourth place with a road game at No. 12 Houston coming up on Wednesday—the big news is the Mountaineers’ play on the road.

WVU picked up its second Big 12 road win of the season—the first being at Kansas—which ties for the same amount of conference road wins it’s had in the last three seasons combined.

The Mountaineers were 0-9 on the road in Big 12 play last season under Josh Eilert and a combined 2-16 in league road games over the final two seasons under Bob Huggins.

Despite trailing for just 18 seconds the entire game—those came in the opening seconds of the first half—WVU (12-3, 3-1 Big 12) was on the brink of losing to the Buffaloes (9-6, 0-4), who have yet to earn a Big 12 win this season.

The Buffaloes had erased most of a 14-point deficit, were causing confusion with their full-court press and WVU’s already short-handed rotation was even more compact through foul trouble.

Colorado did most of its damage in the second half by going 24 of 28 from the foul line. Otherwise, WVU’s defense held the Buffaloes to just 20 % (8 of 23) shooting after halftime.

“We had…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/joseph-yesufu-leads-no-21-033200435.html

Author : The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Publish date : 2025-01-13 03:32:00

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