West Virginia advanced to the College Basketball Crown championship game after defeating Creighton 87-70 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 4. Freshman DJ Thomas led the Mountaineers with 20 points, making nine of his 14 field goal attempts and hitting two three-pointers.
The victory secured West Virginia’s first 20-win season in six years. The team converted 12 of its 30 three-point attempts and outrebounded Creighton by a margin of ten. Five players scored in double figures for West Virginia: Treysen Eaglestaff had 16 points, Brenen Lorient contributed 15, Honor Huff added 13, and Chance Moore came off the bench to score ten points along with a game-best thirteen rebounds.
The Mountaineers took control early by scoring the game’s first eight points and never trailed. At halftime, they led by six points before extending their advantage to as many as nineteen late in the second half. Nearly all specialty statistics favored West Virginia, including points off turnovers (12-5), second chance points (11-0), bench scoring (30-24), and points in the paint (44-32). All ten players available for West Virginia participated in the game.
Josh Dix led Creighton with eighteen points during coach Doug McDermott’s final game coaching the Bluejays after announcing his retirement at season’s end.
West Virginia will face Oklahoma in Sunday’s championship game at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on FOX. Oklahoma reached the final after defeating Baylor earlier that day.
