Everything Darian DeVries said after West Virginia’s overtime loss to Louisville

Despite another gutsy performance, the West Virginia Mountaineers fell to the Louisville Cardinals in overtime in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis. with a score of 79-70. WVU had a chance to win possession in regulation, but Amani Hansberry missed a wide-open three-pointer, sending the game into overtime.

Shortly after the game, WVU head coach Darian DeVries met with the media to find out what went wrong and how the foul affected the game.

“I don’t think we ran out of gas. We won’t use that (as an excuse). I thought Louisville did a good job making some plays and getting to the free throw line. There were certainly a lot of chances that we could have used to come out as winners.”

“We definitely needed more unique lineups than we’ve had this young season and some guys in some spots that haven’t played much yet. But I thought the guys came in and did a good job in some roles that maybe they weren’t as familiar with, but it’s part of the game to be ready when the opportunity presents itself and I thought our guys had that “Done tonight.”

“We probably started possession a little late. We would have liked to have started a second or two earlier, but this worked well for us, getting Javon (Small) and Amani (Hansberry) out in a two-man game in space. They caught it a little bit, so if they wanted to catch it on that possession, we would get a clean look from Amani. If they didn’t and tried to play one-on-one, we would set Von up for a big chance that would hopefully go downhill.”

“I thought he did a good job of just being the aggressor. We messed up a few switches where we wanted to keep the ball in front and had a little bit of indecision that kind of allowed him to get into the zone. But again, at the end of these drives, we just have to be more careful about staying upright and not taking guys out and getting them to the finish line.”

The Mountaineers will be back in action today as they battle for third place in the Battle 4 Atlantis against the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona lost to Oklahoma 82-77 in the semifinal game last night. The start date is set for 3:00 pm EST on ESPN2.

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