Friars Too Much
January 17, 2004 09:52 PM | General
January 17, 2004
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Sheiku Kabba scored 24 points and Ryan Gomes added 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead Providence to an 87-66 victory over West Virginia Saturday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
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| West Virginia's Tyler Relph attempts to drive on Donnie McGrath Saturday night at Providence. (AP photo) |
Kabba made 9 of 11 field goal attempts and Gomes hit 8 of 12; Providence finished the game making 33 of 58 field goal attempts for 56.9 percent.
“They shot the heck out of it; they got a lot of open looks,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “They’ve got a great, veteran team who knows how to play. It was the JV and the varsity out there at times tonight.”
Providence got up big early on West Virginia and led by 21 at the end of the first half, 49-28. The three-point line proved to be a big weapon for Providence tonight. The Friars hit 8 threes in the first half and finished the game making 13 of 19 for 68.4 percent.
Providence came into the game ranked sixth in the Big East in three-point shooting making 36.3 percent of its threes.
“If they have a bad night shooting maybe it’s a closer game,” said Beilein.
The Mountaineers struggled most of the night finding the basket. West Virginia made 26 of 64 field goal attempts including 12 of 34 from three-point range. WVU’s 34 three-point attempts is just one shy of the school-record of 35 tried against Notre Dame on Feb. 2, 2000.
Donnie McGrath chipped in with 14 points and Marcus Douthit contributed 8 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks.
The Friars had little trouble dissecting West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone and man-to-man defenses.
“They’re just a terrific passing team,” said Beilein. “The 1-3-1 zone is great against teams that only have one or two ballhanders that you can key on. With this team you cannot do that. Maybe if we go with man at the beginning of the game it might have been different but with man, it would have just been Gomes, Gomes, Gomes.”
Kevin Pittsnogle came off the bench to score 15 to lead four double-figure West Virginia scorers. Patrick Beilein scored 12 points on 4 threes and D’or Fischer and Tyler Relph contributed 11 each.
Fischer hauled down 13 rebounds and blocked 4 shots.
“We obviously have some weaknesses and they are youth related at this point,” said Beilein.
When the game got out of hand midway through the second half, Beilein tinkered with playing both Pittsnogle and Fischer in the game at the same time.
“I want to try everything right now,” said Beilein of playing the two together. “We’re going to have games like this when we’re going to get down early and we’ve got to try things. We committed ourselves to the future and we know this is going to happen again. Hopefully we’ll get better and we’ll see less and less of this.”
The win lifts Providence’s record to 10-3, 2-1. West Virginia falls to 8-6, 1-3 and faces Marshall Wednesday night in Charleston for its final non-conference game of the season.
That game will begin at approximately 8 pm following the WVU-Marshall women’s game at 5:30 pm. Fans can purchase tickets by calling the Charleston Civic Center box office at 304-345-7469.
