West Virginia (19-14) outlasted the Stanford Cardinals 82-77 in the opening round of the College Basketball Crown tournament on Thursday. The Mountaineers survived a late Stanford surge in regulation to tie it up in the remaining seconds off three Honor Huff free throws. The senior sharpshooter led the team with 21 points. Read more: WVU outlasts Stanford in opening round of College Basketball Crown.
Stanford’s freshman phenom Ebuka Okorie led the Cardinals with a game-high 34 points, but WVU comes out on top with a nice $50,000 payday to boot.
First Half
The Mountaineers got off to a quick start following the opening tip. They rattled off five straight points before Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie made a layup for the Cardinals’ first points of the night.
Both squads started to trade buckets after that, with Okorie doing most of the damage for Stanford. For WVU, it was a team affair in the first four minutes. Even Morris Ugusuk joined the party with a layup at the 14:23-mark.
After Chance Moore matched layups with Okorie, WVU went into the first media timeout of the half up 11-6. Surprisingly, that timeout wasn’t able to take place until nearly eight minutes into the half.
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Stanford rattled off a quick 7-0 run following a second media timeout shortly after. WVU regained the lead off a Treysen Eaglestaff three-pointer. That allowed the Mountaineers to go into the eight-minute timeout up 16-15.
Cardinals and Mountaineers match one another
Both squads caught fire after that, with DJ Thomas opening the fray with a dunk. Stanford’s AJ Rohosy quickly connected on a layup on the other end.
After Brenen Lorient hit a layup for WVU, the teams traded triples, with Eaglestaff hitting his second of the half.
Huff got his name in the scorer’s column with a layup and an eight-foot jumper before the final media timeout of the first half. That helped WVU extend its lead to six.
Out of the timeout, WVU executed an out-of-bounds play to perfection that resulted in a wide-open dunk for Lorient. Stanford’s Jaylen Thompson hit an 11-foot jumper to keep it within six for the Cardinals.
After Floyd and Okorie traded baskets, Oskar Glitay scored the Cardinals’ 18th point in the paint after a six-foot jumper. But Thomas managed to close out the half with an emphatic dunk.
WVU went into the half with a 35-29 lead.
Second Half
Lorient opened the second half with a layup, which was answered with a triple from Benny Gealer. Eaglestaff went on to add four points from the charity stripe from two separate trips.
Okorie continued his hot night with a successful and-one opportunity to cut WVU’s lead to five before the 16-minute media timeout.
The ACC’s leading scorer came out of the media stoppage and couldn’t be stopped. After WVU scored a quick three points from Moore and a lone free throw from Huff, the freshman rattled off six-straight points.
After the second media timeout, he added a triple to bring Stanford’s deficit down to just one. Eaglestaff and Moore both connected on layups, but with the help of Okorie, Stanford stormed back seven unanswered points. They took a two-point lead that caused head coach Ross Hodge to call a timeout with 8:22 left.
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Eaglestaff hit a layup out of the break to tie the lead back up. But Ryan Agarwal answered with an immediate three-pointer.
Despite Eaglestaff making a 16-foot jumper, the Cardinals hit another three to extend their lead to four going into a media timeout.
The Cardinals continued to dominate the Mountaineers as they scored six-answered points before the final media timeout of the half.
Huff calmed the storm with two free throws after the break, but Okorie matched him with own pair from the free-throw line.
Late comeback
Eaglestaff and Thomas combined for four unanswered points with just over a minute left of action. That brought WVU’s deficit down to four.
After a timeout from WVU, they forced a Stanford turnover that led to an and-one opportunity from Lorient. However, he wasn’t able to sink the free throw that would’ve given the Cardinals just a one-point lead.
After getting fouled with nine seconds left, Stanford’s Jeremy Dent-Smith made just one of his free throws. Down three with just a few seconds remaining, Huff was miraculously fouled near the half-court line during his shooting motion.
He sank all three free throws to take the game into overtime.
Overtime
Agarwal started the extra five-minutes of play with a three-point play after getting fouled on a layup. Harlan Obioha responded with his own and-one off a layup.
Floyd and Aidan Cammann traded a pair of free throws to keep the score even. Huff took over after that, scoring six-straight points for the Mountaineers.
Cammann connected on two more from the charity stripe, but Huff responded with a stepback mid-range jumper.
Okorie found some open space off an inbounds play to connect on a layup. After Huff was fouled and managed to make just one free throw, WVU was up 80-77 with 1:23 left.
The Cardinals were unable to score again, as the Mountaineers closed out the comeback victory in overtime 82-77.
What’s next
West Virginia faces the winner of Creighton vs. Rutgers on Saturday in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown tournament.
With the win, the Mountaineers have set themselves with $50,000 in NIL money for advancing. The runner up of the tournament will earn a total of $100,000 and the champion will get $300,000 in total.
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