Season Sweep!
February 15, 2003 06:25 PM | General
February 15, 2003
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Drew Schifino scored 24 points and West Virginia made its free throws down the stretch to defeat Rutgers 52-46 Saturday afternoon.
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| Drew Schifino scored 24 points to lead West Virginia to a 52-46 victory Saturday at Rutgers. (AP photo) |
Patrick Beilein made 4 of 4 free throws and Joe Herber hit 1 of 2 inside of 30 seconds to help the Mountaineers post back-to-back Big East road victories for the first time since the 2001 season.
"I sat there and I said to myself, 'I know my son is a good foul shooter but do I want this hanging on him?'", said West Virginia coach John Beilein. "I just looked at him and I thought, 'what would I do if he wasn't my son?' I'd put that guy in there and he went in there and made some big ones for us and Joe made a big one too."
The win Saturday was huge for West Virginia in its quest to return to the Big East tournament. The Mountaineers, now 13-9, 4-6, were just a game ahead of Rutgers and two games ahead of Georgetown in the Big East West division standings coming into play Saturday.
Georgetown won at Virginia Tech, making the West Virginia-Rutgers outcome even more important.
Now that West Virginia has swept Rutgers for the season, the Mountaineers own the tie breaker against the Knights should the two teams finish with identical records.
West Virginia has sole possession of fifth place, followed by Rutgers and Georgetown with Big East records of 3-7.
It wasn’t easy or pretty, but the Mountaineers had enough to withstand an emotional Rutgers team in front of a capacity crowd today at the RAC.
Rutgers scored the game’s first 10 points and held a 15-5 advantage before West Virginia began chipping away at the lead.
The Mountaineers eventually took their first lead of the game at 22-20 following a three-point basket by Kevin Pittsnogle. West Virginia held a two-point, 25-23 advantage at halftime.
A big change for the Mountaineers came midway through the first half when Beilein decided to change to a 2-3 zone defense.
"I've played the 2-3 zone and the man-to-man probably 25 of the 27 years I've been coaching," said Beilein. "It's the one I know personally the best but there's some problems with it that I didn't think this team could handle."
The Mountaineers went out on an 11-3 run at the start of the second half to build their lead to 10, but Rutgers closed the gap on back-to-back three-point baskets by Calvin Wooten and Jerome Coleman.
The Knights got their deficit to two after a Juel Wiggan runner made it 41-39, but West Virginia answered with a pretty backdoor pass from Herber that led to a Chaz Briggs slam dunk.
A tough, fall-away basket by Herber gave West Virginia more room at 47-42, and Beilein sealed it with his foul shooting.
Schifino was the only WVU player to reach double figures with his 12th 20-point game of the season.
"Drew needs to get his shots because if we don't get him shots he'll take them anyhow," said Beilein. "We were sure to try and get him coming off of screens from Kevin and Chaz."
Coleman led Rutgers, now 11-11, 3-7, with 16 and Herve Lamizana added 11.
Rutgers made just 17 of 53 field goal attempts for 32.1 percent. The Knights were equally bad from the free throw line making just 7 of 16 for 43.8 percent.
West Virginia only hit 36.4 percent of its shots, but it converted 14 of 19 from the foul line for 73.7 percent.
Briggs pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds as West Virginia out-rebounded the Knights, 36-34.
Herber had another outstanding all-around game, scoring 7 points, handing out 8 assists and grabbing 6 rebounds.
"That's a great testament to what we're trying to do," said Beilein of Saturday's win.
West Virginia returns to action on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at the WVU Coliseum against nationally ranked Notre Dame. The Irish dropped a tough, 82-80 decision at Syracuse earlier today.
Fans interested in purchasing tickets for the game can do so by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
