Just four games into his coaching career at West Virginia University, Darian DeVries owns his first signature win.

His converted Mountaineers, powered by Javon Smalls He scored a career-high 31 points in Game 2 of the Bad Boys Battle For Atlantis at Imperial Arena on Paradise Island, Bahamas, defeating third-seeded Gonzaga 86-78 in overtime.

“I’m incredibly proud of the boys,” DeVries said afterwards. “We told them all summer and fall, ‘Just keep believing in yourself and keep putting in the work,’ and they did.”

“We will continue to grow together and there will be some bumps along the way, but I just liked the way they competed and fought (today),” DeVries said. “They had the opportunity to give in, but they refused, and this is a big step for us as we continue to grow.”

This morning Louisville blew out 14^ThIndiana, setting up an unlikely winner’s bracket matchup at noon on Thanksgiving Day.

It was West Virginia’s first win over a No. 3 team since last year against Kansas in Morgantown, but you have to go back five years to find an instance of it happening outside the Coliseum. That was on December 29, 2019 against second-ranked Ohio State at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

It was also WVU’s first win over Gonzaga in six tries, two of them in the NCAA Tournament.

Small’s game-high marks were 9 of 18 from the floor, 9 of 11 from the free throw line and 4 of 10 from behind the arc.

The game was decided at the free throw line, with West Virginia making four more free throws (23) than Gonzaga attempted (19).

Gonzaga (5-1) used the 3-ball to build an eight-point halftime lead, but the Mountaineers went on a 12-0 run early in the second half to take a 45-43 lead. Toby Okani started with a dunk, followed by Small’s fastbreak layup and 3.

Amani Hansberrywho started the game by scoring 10 points in quick succession in four minutes, added a 3 and Small capped the run with another basket. West Virginia extended its lead to five before the Zags rallied.

Gonzaga scored eight straight goals in a two-minute span and led with five free throws from Ryan Nembhard with 25 seconds left.

But Tucker DeVries hit a 3 from the top of the key and then turned a midcourt steal into two free throws when he was fouled by Nolan Hickman attempting a game-winning layup.

After a lengthy pause to decide substitutions, Gonzaga failed to get a game-winning shot when Khalif Battle lost the ball while trying to score.

Small started overtime with a layup and free throws from Okani and Hansberry increased the lead to four. After Small’s layup, Sincere Harris grabbed a big defensive rebound and was eventually fouled by Nembhard. Harris made both free throws, giving WVU a two-possession lead, which expanded to eight with Small’s free throw and Harris’ steal and dunk.

After Braden Huff’s basket, DeVries made two free throws for the win.

West Virginia (4-1) got 19 points and eight rebounds from Hansberry, 16 from DeVries and 10 from Okani.

“As much as we talk about wanting to run, this was a game where we had to look in the mirror and say, ‘They’re better at this than us, so we don’t want to play to their strengths,'” DeVries said . “You won’t see that much this year, but we did it, wanted longer possessions and wanted to make the game a little ugly.”

The Zags, whose six wins this year averaged 32 points per game, including a 38-point opening win over Baylor, shot just 40% and were outscored 42 to 36 by the much smaller Mountaineers.

Huff came off the bench to score 19 points, while Battle contributed 16 points and Hickman 13 points. Nembhard was just 1 of 10 from the floor and finished the game with 7 points.

Graham Ike, Gonzaga’s 6-foot-1, 220-pound forward who averaged a team-best 14.6 points per game, didn’t play much of a role today and spent most of the second half off the Watching from the bench.

“We wanted to take advantage of Amani in some pick-and-pop situations,” DeVries said. “We thought that was the only place we had an advantage, either through his pops or some of his short rolls. Then keep a lot of the ball in Javon’s hands and some in Tucker’s hands as well. “We tried to include those three in the action as much as possible.

West Virginia made 11 of 35 from 3-point range, erasing Gonzaga’s massive 30-2 advantage in bench points.

Today’s win certainly takes some of the edge off WVU’s recent 24-point loss at Pitt and should recalibrate everyone’s thoughts about this year’s team.