Honor Huff scored 19 points and dished out six assists to lead West Virginia to a 79-71 upset win at home over No. 19 BYU in a Big 12 Conference game on Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va.
Brenen Lorient racked up 18 points and pulled down nine rebounds, and DJ Thomas scored 13 points off the bench for West Virginia (17-12, 8-8 Big 12), which snapped a three-game losing streak.
Jasper Floyd and Chance Moore each scored 11 points for the Mountaineers, who earned an NCAA Tournament resume-building victory.
Robert Wright III led BYU (20-9, 8-8) with 23 points. AJ Dybantsa scored 20 points, with 16 coming in the second half, while Aleksej Kostic added 12 for the Cougars, who have dropped seven of their last 10 games.
Dybantsa hit a three to cut it to a one-possession game as the Cougars trailed 72-69 with 1:57 left. But West Virginia went back inside for a Lorient layup and a 74-69 lead.
Keba Keita’s steal and layup pulled the Cougars within 74-71. Huff, Floyd and Harlan Obioha combined to make five foul shots down the stretch to seal the win for West Virginia.
BYU led 22-20 at halftime, but the Mountaineers surged with a 20-4 run. Thomas pushed the Mountaineers ahead at 23-22 with a three-point play that sparked the extended rally for West Virginia to close the half.
The Mountaineers bench outscored BYU’s reserves 24-12.
Huff’s three pushed West Virginia to a 28-22 lead. The Mountaineers’ advantage grew to 38-24 as Floyd drove past Wright for a layup. They finished the first half with a 40-26 lead.
A 7-0 run to open the second half was capped by Kostic’s three-pointer and cut the BYU deficit to 40-33. But the Mountaineers rebuilt their double-digit lead with a 7-3 rally that started with a Treysen Eaglestaff three and featured buckets from Lorient and Thomas for a 47-36 lead.
