UNLV Escapes
December 29, 2002 01:29 AM | General
December 29, 2002
LAS VEGAS – Marcus Banks’ three-point play with 14 seconds left lifted UNLV to a 70-67 victory over West Virginia Saturday night in the second game of the Jim Thorpe Classic at the Thomas and Mack Center.
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| West Virginia center Kevin Pittsnogle blocks a shot attempt by UNLV's Dalron Johnson Saturday night. (AP photo) |
Banks, saddled with his fourth foul midway through the second half, finished the game with 11 points.
“He’s just a tremendous player,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “If I had it to do over again I would have stayed zone. We decided to go man and we were going to jump him when he made his move and I actually thought we played it pretty well. We ended up getting a foul which I thought was a huge call because it made it a three-point game instead of two.”
West Virginia built a 14-point lead early in the second half at 51-37 following a Drew Schifino backdoor layup. The Rebels began to cut into the lead, getting it down to 10 at 54-44 and then to nine at 60-51.
UNLV went on an 11-3 run to trim WVU’s lead to one at 63-62, and tied it at 65 on a three-point basket by Jermaine Lewis with 2:30 left in the game.
After Banks made his three-point play with 14 seconds left, West Virginia had one final chance to tie the game but Josh Yeager’s three-point attempt was too strong.
“We saw some tremendous pressure defense and it takes impeccable timing to do what we do and have it work correctly,” said John Beilein. “In the second half we had a few breakdowns and they made a couple of shots to win the game.”
Dalron Johnson led UNLV with 15 points. Lewis scored 13 and Hunter added 12.
Yeager and Schifino each scored 17 points for the Mountaineers, now 7-2. All 17 of Yeager’s points came in the first half.
“He kept us in the game in the first half,” said Beilein.
West Virginia shot 58 percent from the floor (26-of-47) and held UNLV to just 43 percent shooting, but the Rebels pressured the Mountaineers into 21 turnovers and made seven more free throws.
“I love the fact that we had 16 assists tonight,” said Beilein. “We passed the ball well at times, we saw each other and I love the idea that we played so hard. The 21 turnovers was just a matter of them having tremendous pressure. We do not have the quickness at the guards that they have. We had real trouble at the guard position just getting into our offense.”
The Rebels boost their record to 7-2.
West Virginia has less than 24 hours to get ready for Gardner-Webb, which lost on a last-second shot to SMU earlier tonight.
“We’ve got to bounce back tomorrow,” said Beilein.
Sunday’s game will get underway at 8:05 p.m. ET.
