Oh So Close
March 01, 2003 02:43 PM | General
March 1, 2003
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Seton Hall was ripe for an upset having played four games in eight days, but the Pirates made their shots when it counted down the stretch to outlast West Virginia, 56-53 Saturday afternoon.
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| Seton Hall guard Andre Barrett collides with West Virginia's Jarmon Durisseau-Collins in Big East action Saturday. (AP photo) |
The win was the ninth in a row for Seton Hall and the streaking Pirates have now put themselves into the NCAA tournament at-large picture with a 16-9 overall record.
“We’re really proud of the kids the way they played,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Losses are just losses but this is one we can be real proud of because of what we went through Wednesday night and then to come back and play a team that is 13-3 here with wins over Pitt and Notre Dame … for us to be so close.”
Seton Hall (10-4 in Big East play) began the game looking like a tired team, making just 3 of its first 15 field goal attempts. However, West Virginia couldn’t capitalize turning the basketball over four times in a span of two minutes to start the game.
WVU did take a three point lead after a Drew Schifino free throw made it 19-16, but Seton Hall went on a 10-2 run over the remaining six minutes to take a 26-21 halftime lead.
The Pirates were also awarded a pair of free throws at the start of the second half when Beilein was whistled for a technical foul as the two teams walked off the court.
Andre Barrett made both foul shots to put Seton Hall up by seven, and the Pirates had 10-point leads at 31-21 and 35-25 before West Virginia made a run.
WVU closed the gap to two on a three-point basket by Jarmon Durisseau-Collins just before the shot clock expired, and another three by Patrick Beilein gave the Mountaineers a 40-39 advantage.
Seton Hall answered with seven straight points to take a 47-40 lead, but once again West Virginia went on an 11-3 run to take a 51-50 lead.
Joe Herber got things going with a three-point basket to cut Seton Hall’s lead to four, 47-43, and baskets by Schifino, Tyrone Sally and Kevin Pittsnogle answered Greg Morton’s three-pointer to make the score 50-49, Seton Hall.
West Virginia retook the lead when Sally broke free for a backdoor layup.
The Mountaineers took a three-point lead after a pair of free throws by Herber with 2:18 left, but once again Seton Hall recovered.
After a pair of Andre Sweet free throws, Andre Barrett nailed a huge three-point basket to give the Pirates a two-point lead, 55-53. Barrett managed to retrieve a long three-point miss by Donald Copeland to make the game-turning shot.
West Virginia had a great opportunity to retake the lead with 36 seconds left and the basketball. Beilein called a timeout to set up a play for one shot. However, Schifino was whistled for traveling at the foul line with 12 seconds left.
“They ran the play the way we wanted to run it,” said Beilein. “Drew went with what we call an ‘old school move’ and he did walk. It was a good call. But we tried to go for the win to Kevin immediately with a drive baseline and kickback but they defended it. Then we were going to bring Drew back off that screen and he got in the lane and instead of pulling up, he went a little too far in.”
West Virginia fouled Sweet on the inbounds and Sweet made 1 of 2 free throws with 11 seconds left to give make it 56-53, Seton Hall. Following the miss, West Virginia came down and had the ball deflected out of bounds with five seconds left.
After a West Virginia 30-second timeout, the Mountaineers got an open look at a three to tie the game but Pittsnogle’s attempt was off the mark.
“We had a ton of just bad bounces,” said Beilein. “We’re just not quite there to be able to finish some of those things and that’s it.”
Sweet led Seton Hall with 16 points off the bench. Barrett contributed 11.
Seton Hall made just 18 of 51 field goal attempts for 35.3 percent.
Schifino took game-high honors with 21 points. He was the only WVU player to reach double figures. He left the game at the end of the first half but returned at the start of the second half.
Schifino’s 21 points moves him into 22nd place on the WVU single season scoring list with 531. Schifino needs just eight points to move past Dave Reaser (1967) with 538 points.
West Virginia had a chance to make up the difference at the foul line, but the hard-luck Mountaineers managed to convert just 5 of 11 foul shots. Seton Hall made 13 of 15 which proved to be the difference in the game.
“Just a big difference there and there’s not much we can do,” shrugged Beilein. “We’re just going through the growing pains of that.”
The coach noted that his group of forwards committed 10 turnovers.
“It’s a strength thing,” he noted, “and we can’t change that until after the season.”
It was a tough loss for West Virginia, now 13-13, 4-10. The Mountaineers have dropped four straight games and have lost six of their last seven. The only win during the streak was a 52-46 decision at Rutgers.
West Virginia is still very much alive for a Big East tournament bid depending upon what Rutgers does later today at home against Notre Dame.
Any combination of a West Virginia win and a Rutgers loss or a pair of losses by the Knights will give the Mountaineers a spot in the conference tournament.
West Virginia has just two days to turnaround and play Georgetown Monday night in Morgantown at 7 p.m. The contest has been moved up two days to accommodate ESPN’s “Big Monday” schedule.
Georgetown is playing at Syracuse today.
