West Virginia Back Over .500 in Big 12 Play With Tonight’s Victory Over Colorado

Saturday, January 17

Morgantown, W.Va.

6 p.m.

West Virginia University

12-6,3-2Big 12

Colorado

12-6,2-3Big 12

Colorado

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

West Virginia Back Over .500 in Big 12 Play With Tonight’s Victory Over Colorado

January 17, 2026 08:30 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used a game-high 22 points from Treysen Eaglestaff to defeat Colorado 72-61 in Saturday night Big 12 men's basketball action at Hope Coliseum.

Eaglestaff made nine of his 13 field goal attempts, including 3 of 8 from 3, in registering his second-best scoring performance of the season.

The senior tallied 23 in a home victory against Mississippi Valley earlier this season.

"I thought Trey got us off to an awesome start and it was kind of a hard-fought, back-and-forth (game)," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said.

West Virginia (12-5, 3-2) jumped out to an early 12-point lead before the Buffaloes rallied. A seven-point run, keyed by Sebastian Rancik's 3, reduced the Mountaineers' lead to three, and it remained at three with 3:29 left on Bangot Dak's layup.

Here, West Virginia closed out the half on a 6-2 run to take a 36-29 advantage at the break.

Colorado began the second half on a 14-6 run with baskets by Barrington Hargress and Dak, and back-to-back 3s from Alon Michaeli and Hargress, to pull to within one.

The Buffs took their only lead of the game with 13:37 remaining on Felix Kossaras' driving layup.

But West Virginia answered with five quick ones and then followed Hargress' 3 with another eight-point flurry to push its lead back to nine, 55-46.

Huff, who finished with 14, made the shot of the game near West Virginia's bench with the shot-clock winding down and Colorado looking to eat into WVU's six-point lead. Pinned along the side court, Huff turned and launched a prayer that banked in for a 3 that put West Virginia ahead 65-56 with 4:09 left.

The margin swelled to a game-high 14 with 21 seconds left before Isaiah Johnson's 3 concluded the scoring.

"(The game) really played out the way I thought it would," Hodge observed. "They have been such a good second-half team, if you look at home against Texas Tech they were down big and they had a 3-point (try) to win the game. The other night at Cincinnati it was the same type of situation, so we knew that they surge in the second half.

"You try to prevent it, but that's what they've been and who they've been and you've got to give them a lot of credit."

The Mountaineers made 26 of their 50 field goal attempts for 52% and dominated the Buffs on the glass, 38 to 22. Colorado shot just 39% overall from the floor, while connecting on just seven of its 26 3-point tries.
Hargress paced Colorado, now 12-6 overall and 2-3 in Big 12 play, with 15.

Lorient scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Harlan Obioha contributed 10 points and nine boards.

"That stat of the night was 38 to 22 on the glass," Hodge said.

Tonight's victory before 12,607 fans that included a sizeable number of former Mountaineer players as a part of Varsity Club reunion weekend, was an important one for West Virginia in the league standings.

WVU is now in a four-way tie with Iowa State, UCF and Kansas for fifth place with a two-game road swing at Arizona State and No. 1-ranked Arizona looming next week.

Colorado wrapped up its two-game Eastern swing that included a nine-point loss at Cincinnati earlier this week.

Tonight's game was the Buffs' first-ever appearance in the Coliseum.