The West Virginia Mountaineers from the very start were ready to play. After trading some baskets with the Blue Demons they embarked on a 22-0 run to catapult the Eers to a 33-9 lead. But you as a Mountie fan know how it is when the Eers are up too big too soon. DePaul started chipping away at the lead slowly. It didn’t help their cause as they were missing free throw after free throw. They were 3 of 14 foul shooting in the first half yet they cut the Mountie lead to 15 at 44-29 at the half. The anxiety grew at a rapid rate as DePaul came as close as five. Joe Alexander and the rest of the Mountaineers were not going to blow this lead and they held on for an 85-73 victory.

The Rainmaker Alex Ruoff led the team with 22 points scoring 20 plus for the first time since the Syracuse game in mid-January. Alexander scored 17 on 7 of 9 shooting as the DePaul interior D could not contain him. The player of the game was Da’Sean Butler. Butler scored 14 points with a career-high 13 rebounds. Well the Mounties did a great job containing Draelon Burns in the first half. The same can absolutely not be said for the second half. Burns scored 25 of the game-high 31 points in the second half with seven treys in the second half alone. Freshman team captain Moe Koshwal had a game-high 14 rebounds but missed ALL 7 foul shots. DePaul as a team were 14 of 33 from the foul line. That’s 42 percent. While it’s a great team win for the Eers DePaul could have won this game but were simply not talented enough to make the shots they needed.

West Virginia has now reached the 20-win pleatau with a conference record of 9-6. They will head to New England on Saturday at high noon to face the recently-surging UConn Huskies. The Mountaineers have never won in Connecticut in their six tries. Let’s hope the seven one is the lucky charm as that would seal the potential NCAA Tournament berth. Congrats on huge win. Way to take care of business and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!