West Virginia opened their season with an 87-59 victory over Robert Morris on Monday.

It was head coach Darian DeVries’ first official game and win as head of the WVU men’s basketball program. After the game, he spoke on the team’s fast start, their defense, and how it felt to get that first win in Morgantown.

“Thought our start was about as good as we could have scripted it. I thought we came out, we were super aggressive defensively, we were able to create some turnovers, got us some opportunities there. And then I thought offensively, we were really sharp and we were able to get clean looks by different guys. For us, that, whatever 8-10 minutes I thought was the way we want it to look,” DeVries said. “I thought it was a great start, I thought the guys had tremendous focus and did a really nice job.”

West Virginia began the game scoring 21 points before Robert Morris got on the board. They forced multiple turnovers which they converted into points to build a strong lead in the early going.

Something that the Mountaineers did well throughout, was defend. From the turnovers they created, as mentioned, to their perimeter defense, they played as a unit and were solid.

” I think we created 10 turnovers fairly early in that game and I thought a lot of that was just our physicality trying to get through screens and things,” DeVries said. “We try to be very aggressive on the ball. It also helps when you know you got help behind you, somebody protecting you. So, when we do get in the ball, or you happen to get beat once in a while because it’s going to happen, I think our guys have really grown up in that area in terms of being connected as a defense. They’re able to kind of react and cover for one another when something does go maybe a little bit unexpected. So again, I said it a few weeks ago I think this team has a chance to be a very good defensive team if we can you limit people to one shot and and play the way we did to start that game.”

WVU held Robert Morris to under 33.5% shooting in each half and 25% from three in the game. They picked up 10 steals and eight blocks.

DeVries has officially earned his first win as West Virginia’s head coach. He explained the feeling that comes with such a feat and added a little humor to it.

“I got a ball. Wren (Baker) presented me with a ball. I think it was the game ball. Yeah, he said it was,” DeVries said when asked if kept anything from Monday’s win. “It’s nice; I mean, your first win’s always kind of special. It’s something you always kind of hang on to and remember. And like I told the guys I’d like that not to be the last one, so let’s keep working, keep improving.”

Looking to replicate their season-opening win, West Virginia hosts UMass on Friday in their next contest. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. EST and the game will be streamed to ESPN+.