West Virginia beats Creighton 87-70, advances to Crown Championship
West Virginia led from start to finish beating Creighton 87-70 in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Mountaineers scored on their opening possession and never trailed fighting off several Creighton runs to take control in the second half.
True freshman forward DJ Thomas scored 20 points, while guard Treysen Eaglestaff had 16 points, forward Brenen Lorient had 15 points, guard Honor Huff added 13 points, forward Chance Moore had 10 points and center Harlan Obioha had 9 points.
The Mountaineers were able to score on their opening possession and then added a pair of threes from Huff to take an early 8-0 lead. The Bluejays would then get on the board with a three of their own to put the score at 8-3 through the first three minutes of the game.
The Mountaineers led 14-6 through the first six minutes as Creighton started the game off slow making just two of their first 11 shot attempts. However, that would quickly shift as the Bluejays would use a quick 5-0 run to trim the deficit to just three.
West Virginia would then punch back to extend the edge back out to 22-13 before Creighton would hit a three-pointer to trim the deficit back to six with 10 minutes gone in the first half.
Thomas would score his 12th points of the first half on a three-ball to give the Mountaineers a 29-17 lead. The Bluejays would then use a 9-0 run to trim the lead down to 29-26 with six minutes remaining in the half but a three-ball would end that to give the Mountaineers a six point edge.
Creighton would trim the West Virginia lead to just 40-37 with 1:33 remaining in the half but the Mountaineers would again answer with a three of their own to push the advantage back out to six on the next possession. The Mountaineers would lead 43-37 heading into the half.
The Bluejays would score on their first possession out of the break but a basket by Lorient would push the edge back out to six through the first two minutes of the second half.
The two teams then exchanged a flurry of baskets which put the Mountaineers ahead 53-44 with 14:26 remaining in the game heading into the media timeout. The Mountaineers were able to push it out to 11, but Creighton would trim the edge quickly back down to 55-48.
But the Mountaineers would continue to push back stretching the edge back out to 60-49 with 10 and a half minutes left in the game. And after another Thomas basket, the lead would swell to 65-49 capping off an 8-0 run and forcing a Creighton timeout with 9:06 remaining.
The Bluejays would come out of that timeout to trim eight points off the lead with the Mountaineers leading 65-57 with 7:13 on the clock. A pair of threes by Eaglestaff would give West Virginia some cushion at 72-60 as the clock ticked under six minutes left.
The Mountaineers would then extend the edge out to 18 with 3:40 remaining and from there would be able to close things out.
The Mountaineers will play for the Championship 5:30 p.m. Sunday against Oklahoma.
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