Just five games into his West Virginia University coaching career, Darian DeVries owns his first signature victory.
 
His rebuilt Mountaineers, powered by Javon Small's career-high 31 points, outlasted third-ranked Gonzaga 86-78 in overtime in the second game of the Bad Boys Battle For Atlantis at Imperial Arena in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
 
"I am unbelievably proud of the guys," DeVries said afterward. "We've been telling them all summer long and fall, 'Just keep believing in yourselves and keep putting in the work' and they've been doing that.
 
"We're going to continue to grow together and we're going to have some bumps in the road, too, but I just loved the way they competed and fought (today)," DeVries said. "They had opportunities to give in and they refused to, and that's a huge step for us as we continue to grow."
 
Earlier today, Louisville blew out 14^th-ranked Indiana, setting up an unlikely winner's bracket matchup at noon on Thanksgiving Day.
 
It was West Virginia's first win over a No. 3-rated team since last year against Kansas in Morgantown, but you must go back five years to find an instance when that has happened away from the Coliseum. That was against second-ranked Ohio State at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland on Dec. 29, 2019.
 
It was also WVU's first-ever victory against Gonzaga in six tries, two of those coming in NCAA Tournament play.
 
Small's game-high tally came on 9 of 18 from the floor, 9 of 11 from the free throw line, and 4 of 10 from behind the arc.
 
The free throw line is where the game was decided, 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 made a 12-0 run early in the second half to take a 45-43 lead. Toby Okani began things with a dunk, followed by Small's fastbreak layup and 3. 
 
Amani Hansberry, who began the game by scoring 10 points in rapid-fire succession during a four-minute stretch, added a 3 and Small capped the run with another basket. West Virginia got its lead to five before the Zags rallied.
 
Gonzaga got eight in a row during a two-minute stretch and led by five with 25 seconds left on Ryan Nembhard's two free throws.
 
But Tucker DeVries banged in 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 while attempting a game-tying layup.
 
Following a lengthy break to determine substitutions, Gonzaga was unable to get off a game-winning shot when Khalif Battle lost the ball while trying to score.
 
Small began the overtime with a layup, and free throws by Okani and Hansberry pushed the lead to four. After Small's layup, Sincere Harris came up with a big defensive rebound and was eventually fouled by Nembhard. Harris made both free throws, giving WVU a two-possession cushion which it extended to eight on Small's free throw and Harris' steal and dunk.
 
After Braden Huff's putback basket, DeVries iced the victory with a pair of free throws.
 
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 when we had to look in the mirror and say, 'They're better at it than we are, so we don't want to play to their strengths,'" DeVries said. "You won't see this a lot this year, but we walked it up, wanted longer possessions and we wanted to make the game a little ugly."
 
The Zags, whose six victories this year were by an average of 32 points per game, including a 38-point season-opening win over Baylor, were held to just 40% shooting and were out-rebounded by the much smaller Mountaineers 42 to 36.
 
Huff came off the bench to score 19, while Battle contributed 16 and Hickman 13. Nembhard was just 1 of 10 from the floor and finished with 7 points.
 
Graham Ike, Gonzaga's 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward averaging a team-best 14.6 points per game, was not much of a factor today and spent most of the second half watching from the bench.
 
"We wanted to take advantage of Amani in some pick-and-pop situations," DeVries said. "We thought that was the one place where we would have an advantage, either through his pops or through some of his short rolls. Then, keep the ball in Javon's hands for a good portion of it, and in Tucker's hands some as well. We tried to get those three involved in actions as much as we could."
 
West Virginia made 11 of 35 from 3-point range, which compensated for Gonzaga's massive 30 to 2 advantage in bench points.
 
Today's victory certainly removes some of the sting from WVU's recent 24-point loss at Pitt and should recalibrate everyone's thinking about this year's team.