Pirates Prevail
February 22, 2003 02:45 PM | General
February 22, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Freshman Kelly Whitney scored 17 points and Seton Hall withstood a late West Virginia charge to beat the Mountaineers 68-64 Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
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| West Virginia's Drew Schifino scores two of his game-high 19 points during Saturday's loss to Seton Hall. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“This is one of the toughest places to play in the Big East and the country and I’m proud of how our team played today,” said Seton Hall coach Louis Orr.
The Pirates, winners of five straight, used a 13-0 run at the end of the first half to turn a four-point West Virginia lead into a 31-22 advantage at halftime.
“For every Tyrone Sally we march out there who is long and athletic they march about five out there just like that so it was tough for us,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We just had too many turnovers and the last four minutes of the first half really hurt us.”
Seton Hall (13-9, 7-4) advanced its lead to 14 points at 42-28 with 14:24 to go after a layup by Whitney.
West Virginia (13-11, 4-8) scored five straight points on a three by Joe Herber and a jumper by Kevin Pittsnogle to cut the deficit to nine, but Seton Hall answered with another run to take the lead back out to 14 at 50-36 with 9:02 remaining.
It wasn’t until the 6:30 mark that West Virginia got the game under 10 points at eight on a layup by Tyrone Sally to make it 54-46.
Seizing the momentum, the Mountaineers scored the next six points to move to within two, 54-52.
But Seton Hall’s John Allen answered with a three that started a 9-0 Seton Hall run that pushed its lead back out to 11, 63-52 with just 1:21 left.
Strategically using fouls and timeouts, WVU was able to work the score back down to three at 66-63 with 13 seconds left before Andre Barrett iced the game with a pair of free throws.
In addition to his 17 points, Whitney also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Pirates. Barrett chipped in with 11 points while Marcus Tony-El and Allen scored 10 each.
Seton Hall shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, making 26 of 53 field goals. The Pirates owned a 38-30 advantage on the boards and forced West Virginia into 16 turnovers. WVU made just 23 of 57 field goal attempts for 40.4 percent.
“When we come out just like we did against Notre Dame and have three or four shots go in and out it plays on our mind and we worry about the missed shots instead of just executing at times,” said Beilein. “It was not a good first half and that did us in.”
“Our defensive effort was great,” add Orr. “It shows the character of our team. They are able to step up when we need them to. I told them that WVU was not going to quit.”
Drew Schifino scored 19 for the Mountaineers. Those 19 points gives the sophomore 500 for the season, becoming just the 32nd player in school history to do so. Schifino is tied with Lester Rowe (1984) and Tony Robertson (1976) for 30th on the single season scoring list.
Pittsnogle snapped his three-game streak of failing to reach double figures by scoring 11, while Herber finished with 10.
“It’s going to get a little tougher for us right now. But you can see that Seton Hall is a very good team and you can see why they’ve beaten the Pitts and the Notre Dames because they’re a pretty darned good team,” said Beilein.
While not catastrophic, the loss was damaging to West Virginia’s Big East tournament aspirations. Coupled with a Georgetown victory today at Miami, West Virginia and the Hoyas are now tied for fifth place in the Big East West with 4-8 records. The Hoyas presently own the tiebreaker over the Mountaineers with a win in Washington, D.C. earlier this year.
Rutgers, in last place in the West with a 3-8 record, is at Pitt tonight.
“We’re just going to go back to the drawing board, work hard on Monday and Tuesday and then try and pull off a super upset up at Syracuse,” said Beilein.
West Virginia returns to action on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at Syracuse for a 7 p.m. game against the 15th-rated Orangemen.
