MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – WVU basketball head coach Ross Hodge experienced his first Backyard Brawl victory on Thursday night, topping Pitt 71-49.
The energy inside the Hope Coliseum was high, housing over 12,000 Mountaineer fans. With the excitement surrounding the game, Hodge emphasized composure among the passion in the postgame press conference.
“You gotta play with emotion, you gotta play with passion, but you don’t want to be emotional to the point where it’s detrimental to your team,” Hodge said. “And I thought our guys did a great job of that tonight.”
The Mountaineers rose to the occasion, giving WVU fans their first Backyard Brawl win since 2022. While preparing for the game, Hodge said he embraced the importance of it with his team.
“We never shied away internally or externally what this game meant to the state, the people of West Virginia, and how passionate it is to this fan base,” Hodge said. “And so we talked about it, we knew it, we didn’t run away from it, we didn’t hide from it… but at the same time, we knew when the ball tipped, we were gonna have to go out there and execute and play within ourselves.”
At after the clock hit zero and the team sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Hodge looked to the crowd and unleashed a celebratory yell.
WVU head coach Ross Hodge lets out a celebratory yell after beating Pitt in 2025 Backyard Brawl. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)
“I just wanted to share that with the fans. And like I said, I know how much this means to them. I mean… we can call a spade a spade. There’s people that have been coming to this game for 30 and 40 years. And it means a lot to me, but it actually means more to them. And so I wanted to share that with them,” Hodge said.
Senior center Harlan Obioha led the Mountaineers with 19 points and six rebounds. He also discussed the crowd energy and importance of fan support in the postgame press conference.
“The crowd and the energy is everything. I mean, they kind of fault us more than they know in terms of just our energy and effort,” Obioha said. “I mean, at the end of the day, we want to win this game and games moving forward for each other, obviously, in the locker room. But however, we understand we want to win it for the people who took their time out to come support and show love to us.”
WVU basketball will take the court again at 7 p.m. Monday when they host Lafayette.
Find more coverage of WVU basketball and Ross Hodge at WV Sports Now.
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