Can You Believe It?
December 03, 2002 09:08 PM | General
December 3, 2002
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Can you believe it?
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| How sweet it is. Guard Jarmon Durisseau-Collins drives on Florida's Justin Hamilton during Tuesday's 68-66 West Virginia upset of Florida. |
Just days after the West Virginia University football team upset nationally ranked Pitt and Virginia Tech in successive games, the Mountaineer basketball team turned the trick against No. 7-ranked Florida Tuesday night in Charleston.
Joe Herber’s fall away three-point basket with 37 seconds left gave West Virginia its first lead of the second half and the Mountaineers held on for a stunning 68-66 upset of the Gators.
"Herber made a great, great three-point shot," admitted Florida coach Billy Donovan. "It was a step-back three and you’ve got to give him credit for hitting the shot when the game was on the line. I think he was one-for-10 from behind the three-point line coming into the game and I told our guys that he’s taken the second-most threes so he must be a good shooter."
"I was telling him to run a play but he just had so much space on him," added West Virginia coach John Beilein.
Drew Schifino and Jarmon Durisseau-Collins hit free throws inside of 20 seconds and West Virginia withstood a pair of missed three-pointers by Brett Nelson to help present Mountaineer fans with an early Christmas gift.
The West Virginia win certainly capped off one of the more memorable two-week periods in Mountaineer sports history. Rich Rodriguez’ football team stunned the country with a win at No. 13-ranked Virginia Tech on Nov. 20, and followed that up with a victory at No. 17 Pitt last Saturday.
And now John Beilein, who took over a West Virginia job Dan Dakich didn’t want, won his 450th career game in amazing style.
Beilein may have downplayed the victory somewhat during his post-game comments knowing a full season is ahead of his basketball team. But a win over Florida Tuesday does wonders for a program coming off an eight-win season last year and was picked to finish last in the Big East this season.
"This win doesn’t mean a thing against UNC Greensboro on Saturday," Beilein shrugged. "This is a great atmosphere here and it’s a nice win, but it really isn’t bigger than any of the other ones. At the end of the year they’re all the same.
"What’s great about this is that it’s great for West Virginia University, it’s great for our fans and the people who want a team out there that’s going to play hard like this," he added. "I hope this team down the road becomes just like Gale (Catlett’s) ‘Sweet 16’ team – just a bunch of no names out there playing. That’s what we’re shooting for."
The outcome spoiled the return of Nelson, a native of nearby St. Albans. Florida agreed to play West Virginia in Charleston in part because of a recruiting promise made by Donovan to Nelson.
"It was tough but I have to give credit to West Virginia – they outplayed us tonight," said Nelson.
It wasn’t a particularly good night for the 6-foot-4 senior guard, who made just three-of-13 field goal attempts for nine points. However, in Nelson’s defense he was coming off a stress fracture to his right foot that kept him out of Florida’s first three games.
"His stats were off because he took two poor shots at the end of the game," said Donovan.
Sophomore Drew Schifino led West Virginia with 18 points for his 13th straight double-figure game. Sophomore forward Tyrone Sally and Herber each finished with 11 points.
Senior Chaz Briggs played an outstanding game off the bench with eight points on four-of-five shooting.
"We have the luxury of having seniors coming off the bench," said Beilein. "I thought our bench play was just great."
Although he scored just one point, Durisseau-Collins withstood the Florida pressure and handed out five assists with just one turnover in 39 minutes of action.
"He really takes care of the basketball," said Beilein. "We’re pleased with the way he attacked their pressure. They tried to post him up but he’s a tough kid and he did a great job."
Matt Bonner led the Gators with 18 points. David Lee contributed 17 for the Gators, coming off an emotional 83-73 victory over No. 2-ranked Kansas in the preseason NIT on Nov. 29.
Florida was sluggish at the start of the game and trailed the Mountaineers 10-4 before the Gators got things going behind the shooting of Bonner, who knocked down two straight three-pointers and scored 10 points in a 13-minute stretch to help give Florida a 10-point lead at 30-20.
But West Virginia rallied to score nine straight points at the end of the half to close the gap to one. Herber keyed the rally with a three-pointer off a feed from Sally and then swiped the basketball and slammed it home to cut the deficit to four, 30-26. Schifino drained two free throws with 13 seconds remaining in the half to complete the nine-point run.
Florida scored the first eight points of the second half to build up a nine-point lead. But once again West Virginia regrouped to keep it close. Freshman Patrick Beilein made an important three to cut Florida’s lead to five, 44-39, and West Virginia got it down to one on a three-pointer from Yeager with 10:04 left.
"For whatever reason West Virginia just totally outplayed us," said Donovan. "We’re a young team and we just weren’t prepared to handle some of the things they threw at us and that falls in my lap with regards to the way we performed."
"In Florida’s defense, they have a young team and this was the first time this year they’ve played in a hostile environment," added Beilein.
It was West Virginia’s first victory against a Top 10 team since defeating No. 10 Syracuse, 87-76 in Morgantown on Feb. 17, 2001. It was a also the Mountaineers first win over a Top 10-ranked non-conference opponent since Mar. 14, 1998, when WVU downed No. 9-ranked Cincinnati 75-74 in the NCAA tournament. The win also snapped WVU’s five-game losing streak to nationally ranked teams.
West Virginia improves to 3-1 while Florida falls to 4-2.
A vocal crowd of 9,626 watched the game.
The Mountaineers resume non-conference play on Saturday when WVU plays host to UNC Greensboro at the WVU Coliseum for 4 p.m. contest.
