West Virginia matches up against Colorado after the Buffaloes defeated the TCU Horned Frogs in the first round of the Big 12 tournament Wednesday afternoon. Here’s how the teams match up.
WVU entered the Big 12 tournament as a No. 8 seed and had to await the winner of No. 9 TCU and No. 16 Colorado to know who their first game would be against. On Tuesday, Colorado defeated TCU in a thrilling first-round matchup by a score of 69-67.
In the first meeting between the two teams earlier this year, WVU walked out of Boulder with a 78-70 victory over Colorado. The Mountaineers led by a score of 40-29 at halftime, led by Jonathan Powell and Eduardo Andre, who each had a team-high 10 first-half points. The team shot an even 50% from the field and 30.8% from the three point line, while Colorado shot 48% from the field and 35.7% from the arc.
Javon Small exploded in the second half of the first matchup between the two teams, scoring 17 of his game-high 26 in the second half.
The Mountaineers finished the regular season with a 19-12 record and went 10-10 in Big 12 play, while Colorado finished at 13-19 and 3-17 in conference play, picking up wins over UCF, Baylor, and TCU.
Colorado is a team that had shot 44.8% from the field throughout the regular season, which ranked them eighth in the Big 12, where WVU was ranked 14th in the conference. It will be critical for WVU to find a way to limit the amount of quality shots for Colorado and find a way for their defense to control the game, or they may find themselves in some trouble.
For the Mountaineers, who have relied on guard Javon Small all year, they will need another big performance out of him in this one to repeat success against the Buffaloes. Small, who was in the running for Big 12 Player of the Year, has seen recent success, dropping at least 10 points in each of his last five, three of which he racked up 18 plus points. He will be the key factor to WVU’s success the rest of the way if they want to make a run in this tournament.
WVU and Colorado are set to matchup in the second round of the Big 12 tournament Wednesday, March 12 at 3 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on ESPN+.
