Mountaineers Rally to Down Stanford in College Basketball Crown Quarterfinals in Las Vegas

Thursday, April 2

Las Vegas, Nev.

8 p.m.

West Virginia University

19-14,9-9Big 12

Stanford

20-13,9-9ACC

OT 1

Stanford

West Virginia

Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications

Mountaineers Rally to Down Stanford in College Basketball Crown Quarterfinals in Las Vegas

April 02, 2026 11:10 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: John Antonik

West Virginia rallied from eight points down with 3:21 left in regulation, and then outscored Stanford 14-9 in the extra session to claim tonight's first quarterfinal-round game 82-77 in the 2026 College Basketball Crown played at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The Mountaineers (19-14) will now face the winner of tonight's nightcap between Rutgers and Creighton in one semifinal game on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. EST on FOX.

The other semifinal game will pit Baylor against Oklahoma.

This evening, Stanford appeared headed for its 21^st victory of the season when Ebuka Okorie's two free throws gave the Cardinal their largest lead of the game, 67-59, but West Virginia limited Stanford to just a Jeremy Dent-Smith basket over the remaining 3:21 and used three Honor Huff free throws to tie the game with three seconds remaining.

Stanford put on a master-class display of boneheaded basketball down the stretch which enabled West Virginia to get back in it. The biggest mistake, of course, was Benny Gealer fouling Huff on a 3-point field goal attempt with three seconds left and the Cardinal holding a 68-65 lead.

At the beginning of overtime, Stanford went up three on Ryan Agarwal's put-back basket and free throw when he was fouled by Treysen Eaglestaff. But the Mountaineers got all three back at the other end when Harlan Obioha did likewise, grabbing his missed dunk and scoring while being fouled by AJ Rohosy.

After free throws by Jasper Floyd for West Virginia and Aidan Cammann for Stanford, Huff gave the Mountaineers some cushion with a jumper and a pair of free throws. Huff then added a step-back jumper with 1:53 left and another free throw 30 seconds later to give WVU an 80-77 lead.

A Lorient free throw with 14 seconds remaining put the Mountaineers up four and then grabbed his miss on the second attempt and got the ball to Huff, who was fouled by Gealer with nine seconds to go. Huff made one of two ahead of misses by Dent-Smith and Cammann to end the game.

Okorie, who finished with a game-high 34 points and scored 13 straight points during one stretch in the second half to erase West Virginia's eight-point lead, made just one field goal over the remaining 8:32 of regulation and one in the overtime period when West Virginia was forced to double-team him.

The freshman finished the game 13-of-23 overall but was only 1-of-6 from 3-point distance. West Virginia was worse from behind the arc, going 2-of-20, but made up for it by hitting 22 of 26 from the free throw line. Huff converted 11 of 13 of them while Eaglestaff made all six of his attempts.

Huff led West Virginia with 21 points, Eaglestaff contributed 18 and Lorient finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.

Cammann tallied 12 and Rohosy finished with 10 for Stanford, which outrebounded West Virginia 47-to-37 while grabbing 16 offensive rebounds. However, the Cardinal were only able to convert seven of those for 14 points.

Stanford ended the game making just one its nine field goal attempts, including missing its final six.

WVU had an 18-to-eight edge in points off turnovers and led for 33:09 of the contest.

West Virginia led 35-29 at halftime.

It was the Mountaineers' second victory ever against their West Coast counterpart with the other triumph coming back on Dec. 28, 1959, in the Los Angeles Classic.