Back on Track
December 02, 2003 09:45 PM | General
December 2, 2003
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Drew Schifino scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half and D'or Fischer contributed 12 off the bench to help West Virginia to a 66-57 win over St. Louis Tuesday night at the Charleston Civic Center.
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| D'or Fischer scored 12 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and blocked 3 shots to help West Virginia defeat St. Louis 66-57. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Schifino warmed up at the start of the second half by scoring a pair of baskets to give West Virginia a 13-point lead at 36-23. West Virginia’s biggest lead was 14 at 39-25 after a free throw by Schifino, but St. Louis (3-1) went on a 13-2 run to cut West Virginia’s lead to two, 42-40 after a three-point basket by Anthony Drejaj.
A pair of free throws by Kevin Pittsnogle pushed West Virginia’s lead back to four, and a huge three-point basket by Tyler Relph gave West Virginia a more comfortable seven-point lead.
“He’s hit two of them now … two big ones,” said Beilein of Relph’s three.
St. Louis cut the deficit to five at 47-42 on a pair of free throws by Josh Fisher before a 6-0 West Virginia run got the lead back to 11 at 53-42.
Fischer went five of five shooting from the floor for his 12 points and he also added eight rebounds and three blocks. Fischer now has 14 blocks for the year.
Pittsnogle, who struggled in West Virginia’s first two games scoring 12 points, got back on track hitting four of four field goals and two of two from the foul line for 11 points.
“This is basically a road win even though we were playing in Charleston,” said Pittsnogle, who cracked double figures for the first time this year.
The two combined for 23 points at the center spot. After playing them together at times in the first two games, Beilein opted to rotate the two Tuesday night against St. Louis with great results.
“We tried to keep them both fresh,” Beilein admitted. “We noticed that both of them are not in game shape to play for extended periods yet.”
J.D. Collins had a magnificent all-around game, scoring a season-high seven points and handing out seven assists with no turnovers.
Schifino extended his double-figure scoring streak to 41 games against St. Louis. That total is the second longest in the country.
Anthony Drejaj led St. Louis with 16 points. Chris Sloan, St. Louis’ leading scorer averaging 16.7 points entering tonight’s game, managed just 10 before fouling out.
West Virginia was able to avenge last year’s 30-point loss to the Billikens. The Mountaineers made 23 of 41 field goal attempts for 56.1 percent. St. Louis hit 21 of 53 field goal attempts for 38.2 percent.
“We were a little scrappier today defensively,” said Beilein. “We do a lot of things … switching and different things like that … and we start relying on the formation of the defense instead of stopping the man you’re guarding. Guys are getting beat to the basket and saying, ‘Where’s my help?’ If you don’t get beat to the basket you don’t have to worry about that.”
WVU also managed to limit St. Louis’ rebounding edge to two at 32-30 after getting beaten badly on the boards last Saturday against Northeastern.
“If we can lose the rebounding wars by one or two then we can win a lot of games,” said Beilein. “It’s when we lose like we did the other night by 10 or 12 when it really hurts.”
West Virginia led 27-19 at halftime.
“It’s exciting for me that I’m starting to understand this team a little more,” said Beilein. “Fooling around with them for six weeks now I’m starting to realize what buttons to push right now and that makes me feel a little bit better.”
The Mountaineers (2-1) return to the court Saturday against George Washington in the first game of the BB&T Classic in Washington, D.C. The other game will feature two nationally ranked teams in Maryland and Gonzaga.
The West Virginia-George Washington game will get underway at 1 pm.
