St. Louis Preview
December 01, 2003 01:55 PM | General
December 1, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia begins a tough three-game stretch on Tuesday against St. Louis in a non-conference matchup at the Charleston Civic Center. After that, WVU plays George Washington and either Maryland or Gonzaga this weekend in the BB&T Classic in Washington, D.C.
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| Tyrone Sally scored 18 points and pulled down 8 rebounds in last Saturday's loss to Northeastern (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Mountaineers (1-1) are coming off a 91-84 loss to Northeastern last Saturday in their home opener at the WVU Coliseum.
“They had five or six fourth or fifth-year players who really understood how to play and they exposed a lot of the weaknesses that we have,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein of his team’s loss to Northeastern. “I thought they were a pretty good team. There were a few Big East teams that would have beaten them that night and there are a few others ones that wouldn’t have.”
Northeastern made 13 of 25 three-point field goal attempts and out-rebounded the much taller Mountaineers, 49-34 to pull off the upset victory. In two games this year, West Virginia has had a tough time rebounding. WVU was also out-rebounded, 47-38 in a season-opening win at James Madison on Nov. 24.
St. Louis takes to the road for the first time this year after posting a 3-0 mark at home in games against Eastern Kentucky (64-58), Savannah State (73-33) and North Carolina A&T (75-42).
Coach Brad Soderberg is in his second season with the Bills and is coming off an NIT season from a year ago. St. Louis finished fourth in Conference USA, tying its previous best finish under Charlie Spoonhour in 1998. Soderberg has an eight-year coaching record of 150-87 and has done so by controlling the tempo and playing good defense.
In three games this year St. Louis is allowing just 44.3 points per game and has forced 26.3 turnovers per game. Savannah State scored just 33 points and shot 23.5 percent in a 40-point loss.
“Now the fun starts,” said Soderberg. “We’ve made some progress, but we’re going to find out if we’re a pretty good team real soon.”
Six-seven senior swingman Chris Sloan leads St. Louis with an average of 16.7 points per game. The St. Charles, Mo., resident matched his career high with four steals against North Carolina A&T to go with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Six-two senior guard Joss Fisher has also been an effective scorer averaging 15 points per game. He ranks eight on the SLU all-time assist list with 313 and is fifth in all-time steals with 133. He had 18 points against North Carolina A&T to go with six assists and no turnovers.
Izik Ohanon, a 6-foot-9, 220-pound junior, and 6-foot-9, 250-pound Tom Frericks team with Sloan in the paint. Ohanon and Frericks have combined to average 14 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Six-two, 205-pound sophomore Anthony Drejaj is expected to start at the other guard spot. He is averaging 6.7 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
Also available for the first time is junior guard Reggie Bryant, who is making his St. Louis debut after sitting out the first three games due to an NCAA violation while at Villanova. Bryant is a 6-foot-2, 185-pound guard from Baltimore.
“St. Louis will grind it out a little bit, their defense is probably the best we’ll see all year, so we’re into it now,” said Beilein. “These four games, counting Northeastern, in a span of one week will be tough. There isn’t a slouch in one of them.”
Last year, St. Louis handed West Virginia one of its worst losses of the season at the Savvis Center.
“We didn’t seem to have anything going for the entire 40 minutes,” said Beilein of last year’s game. “It was a 10 to 20-point game and they scored the last 10 points of the game to make it a 30-point game. It was as ugly as it gets.”
After leading WVU by 12 at halftime, St. Louis clamped down on West Virginia and outscored the Mountaineers 45-27 in the second half while holding WVU to just 42.5 percent from the floor for the game.
Ohanon, a native of Tel Aviv, Israel, was St. Louis’ big weapon, coming off the bench to score 18 points on 8 of 9 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds.
Drew Schifino was the only West Virginia player to reach double figures with 22.
“They’re real physical which obviously worries me because even though Northeastern wasn’t physically imposing they knocked us around pretty good,” said Beilein. “We have to harden up quite a bit against St. Louis.”
St. Louis has never faced West Virginia in Morgantown with three of the previous four meetings coming at neutral sites. The two teams are tied at 2-2.
Following Tuesday’s game against West Virginia, St. Louis takes on fourth-ranked Arizona at home on Saturday.
MSN’s radio coverage Tuesday night begins at 6:30 pm with the pre-game show. Fans can access that broadcast on the Internet through Yahoo! Sports.
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