Tech at the Buzzer
January 14, 2004 09:39 PM | General
January 14, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Markus Sailes’ driving layup with 9 seconds left lifted Virginia Tech to a 69-67 victory over West Virginia Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Joe Herber lays on the ground in disappointment after Virginia Tech defeats West Virginia Wednesday night in Morgantown. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“It was really a tough one for us,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Credit Virginia Tech; they made tough shot after tough shot after tough shot. It wasn’t like they got open shots all night long.”
After the Sailes basket, the Mountaineers called timeout to set up a play to either tie or win the game at the other end, but J.D. Collins’ short jumper spun around the rim with a second left and the Hokies were able to secure the ball and claim their first Big East victory of the season.
“I don’t like to call those timeouts but I wanted to make sure what they were doing,” said Beilein of his decision to draw up a play at the end and get Virginia Tech’s defense set. “They ended up going to a 1-3-1 zone and I wanted to run a zone-man play so it wouldn’t get blown up on us.”
West Virginia led 32-31 at halftime and was able to jump out to a seven-point lead twice at 42-35 and 58-51, but each time the Hokies came back. The big catalyst for Tech was freshman guard Zabian Dowdell, who scored 14 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. Dowdell made 6 of 11 field goal attempts including 5 of 9 from three-point distance.
“He was terrific in the game,” said Beilein of Dowdell. “He had that one span where he had 12 straight points. We lost him a couple of times and what can you do?”
The turning point in the game came after West Virginia went up 58-51 on a Patrick Beilein three-point basket with 8:09 remaining. The Hokies went on a 7-0 run to tie the game with 5:51 left. Bryant Matthews hit a short jumper and a free throw, Dowdell converted a basket, and Sailes hit a layup to tie it.
The Mountaineers were able to claim a three-point lead on a pair of free throws by Joe Herber at 61-58, but Virginia Tech answered with a five straight points from Matthews to take a 63-62 advantage.
Beilein tied the game at 63 on one of two free throws, but consecutive layups by Matthews and Coleman Collins gave Virginia Tech a 67-63 lead with 1:28.
Jerrah Young hit a driving layup with 50 seconds to go and Collins nailed a short jumper in the paint to tie the game before Sailes won it.
Matthews, who came into the contest averaging a conference-best 24.6 points per game, managed to finish with 19 after scoring just 7 in the first half. Matthews hit 8 of 17 field goal attempts and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Sailes added 14 points including 8 in the second half.
Beilein came off the bench to score a career-high 16 points. He was 5 of 7 from the floor including 5 of 6 from three-point distance. Beilein had his perfect free throw streak of 32 straight snapped Wednesday going 1 of 3 from the line. That ties Stan Boskovich’s school record set in 1975.
Tyrone Sally was the only other WVU player to reach double figures with 11.
“I didn’t think we had a stellar offensive performance but we still got 67 points,” said Beilein. “We just don’t have a lot of sync in what we’re doing right now.”
Both teams did shoot the ball well. West Virginia finished the game making 25 of 45 field goal attempts for 55.6 percent while Virginia Tech was 29 of 57 for 50.9 percent. Virginia Tech held a slight, 28-26 edge in rebounding.
The victory was just Virginia Tech’s third road win in Big East play since joining the conference; two of Virginia Tech’s three road wins have come at the expense of the Mountaineers.
The loss was particularly damaging to West Virginia, which was looking to get off to a good start in league play before traveling to Providence to meet the 9-3 Friars Saturday night.
“This is not head-hanging time, we’ve got to redevelop and that’s what our job is,” said Beilein. “This one is going to hurt a little bit but we’ve got be ready and go to Providence on Saturday.”
A positive for the Mountaineers was the improved play of 6-foot-6 freshman forward Jerrah Young, who scored 6 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in 14 minutes of action.
“Jerrah will just get better and better,” said Beilein. “He’s still not comfortable with a lot of things but he gives us stuff. We’re back redeveloping everything we’re doing and I’ve got a great bunch of guys to go to bat with every single day.”
WVU now 8-5, 1-2, plays its final non-conference game of the year against Marshall next Wednesday night before getting into the teeth of its conference schedule with games coming up against Boston College, St. John’s and Villanova in a span of seven days to end the month of January.
Virginia Tech (8-5, 1-1), meanwhile, has a pair of home Big East games coming up against Miami and Notre Dame.
West Virginia makes a return trip to Virginia Tech on Saturday, Feb. 28.
