Block Party
January 24, 2004 07:37 PM | General
January 24, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last year Boston College forward Craig Smith had his way against West Virginia, scoring 30 points on 13 of 19 shooting in helping the Eagles to a 75-70 victory in Chestnut Hill.
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| West Virginia's D'or Fischer blocks one of his eight shots Saturday against Boston College. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Saturday, West Virginia’s D’or Fischer saw to it that Smith didn’t have the same type of performance.
Smith, a 6-foot-7 forward, only managed to make 7 of 16 field goals and teammate Uka Agbai went 3 of 7 as West Virginia stole a 65-62 victory over the Eagles at the WVU Coliseum.
“D’or made a big difference today,” said West Virginia forward Tyrone Sally. “He changed a lot of shots and that was the difference in the game.”
“Obviously he makes a big difference when he can block eight shots like that,” said Boston College coach Al Skinner. “But in saying that, anytime you have big people inside to score for you you’ve got to have good execution inside and I don’t think we executed well today. I’m not going to take anything away from West Virginia’s defense, but I know that we didn’t execute consistently well.”
Fischer blocked a school-record 8 shots and continually bothered Smith, Agbai and 7-foot center Nate Doornekamp inside. A key exchange came with 7:53 left in the game when Smith went up for a wide open dunk and clanked it off the front of the rim.
With the score tied at 48, West Virginia managed to score on the other end when J.D. Collins drove in for an uncontested layup. The basket gave West Virginia a 50-48 lead and more importantly, energized the team and the crowd.
Joe Herber followed with a driving layup to put the Mountaineers up by four at 7:10. BC eventually tied the game at 54 on a layup by Smith, but West Virginia responded with a free throw by Tyrone Sally and a dunk by Fischer to take a 57-54 lead.
Herber put the Mountaineers up by five on a pair of free throws with 55 seconds left and six straight free throws by Patrick Beilein iced the game for the Mountaineers.
But it was the overall play of Fischer that made the difference.
“I think all of his blocks came from the weak side,” said Herber. “It really helps us out and we have a lot of confidence in being aggressive because we know he’s back there to clean things up.”
“The harder we play and the more our coach gets on us the better we’re going to get,” said Fischer.
All three of Agbai’s baskets came away from the basket away from Fischer. Doornekamp made two field goals, but only one was in the paint. Overall BC, which came into the game shooting 46.5 percent, only managed to convert 24 of 59 shot attempts for 40.7 percent.
“I love to block shots. I’d rather block a shot than throw down a dunk,” said Fischer, now in sole possession of second place in single season blocks at WVU with 65. Fischer needs six more to break Marcus Goree’s record of 70 blocks done in 2000.
The pace of the game favored West Virginia throughout. The game’s first basket didn’t happen until 18:34 when Fischer converted a layup, and the score was just 15-14 in West Virginia’s favor at the 10-minute mark of the first half.
BC was able to push its lead out to four, 22-18 on an 8-0 run punctuated by a three from Doornekamp.
But a Fischer dunk and a layup by Beilein tied the game at 22.
West Virginia was able to regain the led at 27-26 on a Sally layup before the Eagles finished the half leading by one on a layup by Doornekamp.
Sally, coming off a strong performance against Marshall on Wednesday, finished the game with 18 points to lead West Virginia. Beilein scored 14 off the bench, Fischer contributed 12 points and 5 rebounds, and Joe Herber had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
“I’m just trying to add some more to my game and give my teammates some energy,” said Sally.
“He’s just playing so dang hard; he’s flying around,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein of Sally’s play. “I told him, ‘You better be ready for 40 tonight’ and he almost had it.”
West Virginia shot 44.4 percent from the field to snap a span of going five of its last six games shooting less than 40 percent.
The Mountaineers had 17 assists and only 11 turnovers.
“I’m a fighter just like I want my team to be and I’m so happy for them, I’m happy for our coaching staff and I’m happy for our university,” said Beilein of his team's win.
Smith led Boston College with 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Freshman Jared Dudley scored 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds before fouling out with 55 seconds left.
“Defense is the key in every game we play,” said Fischer. “The better we’re able to defend the more games we’re going to win.”
The victory puts West Virginia (10-6, 2-3) right back into the thick of things in the Big East and cancels out a bad loss to Virginia Tech on Jan. 14. The Mountaineers are now 2-3 in conference play, moving into a tie with BC and Georgetown for ninth place. Rutgers defeated St. John’s Saturday to move to 2-4, while Virginia Tech plays at Seton Hall tonight.
Boston College drops to 13-5, 2-3.
“It was there for us,” said Skinner. “We got up and we just didn’t secure it. We got careless at times and did not maintain our composure.”
West Virginia has three days off before traveling to St. John’s to take on the Red Storm in Jamaica, N.Y., on Wednesday, Jan. 28. That game will get underway at 7:30 pm.
“We’re going to keep plugging everyday and see how many teams we can knock off down the stretch,” said Beilein.
Notebook: Boston College coach Al Skinner admitted that West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone defense gave his team problems Saturday, “We’re talking about freshmen and sophomores playing and you don’t see a 1-3-1 very often. There were times when we were very effective against it but we weren’t consistent and that was the big thing,” he said. While Boston College has forged an RPI of 20 this week according to College RPI.com, the Eagles have been susceptible on the road, dropping its third road game of the season to the Mountaineers. Boston College is just 1-3 in road games, defeating Georgetown to open conference play. West Virginia’s victory over Boston College snapped a five-game losing streak to the Eagles, and could be West Virginia’s last win against BC in the Coliseum. It is unknown if Boston College will make another trip to Morgantown in its final season of Big East play next year before moving on to the ACC. Beilein noted afterward in his post-game press conference that he thought Tyrone Sally’s pair of free throws to beat Marshall on Wednesday may have had a domino affect on his team, “Those were the big shots in this worm turning … for the whole season turning and our kids getting a bounce in their steps. You go off those foul shots and now for the next two days you have nothing but productive practices,” he said. Beilein said former WVU All-American wide receiver Danny Buggs gave his team a little pep talk right after the team’s pre-game meal. Buggs’ message: “Team work makes your dreams work.” “They hear that stuff all the time,” said Beilein, “but I think our kids really connected with that.” West Virginia’s Patrick Beilein made 6 of 7 free throw attempts Saturday and is now 91.9 percent from the foul line (34 of 37). Beilein is West Virginia’s top scorer in Big East play through five games, averaging 11.2 points per game. Coach John Beilein would prefer that his team get out in transition more and get easy baskets, but he says it’s easier said than done, “I want to run but getting them to run is harder than people think,” he said. “It’s a lot of energy, the point guard has got to want to run and the guys have got to run the court.”
