WVU Wins Opener
November 20, 2004 08:20 PM | General
November 20, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Senior D’or Fischer scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead West Virginia to a season-opening 82-70 victory over St. Peter’s Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Tyrone Sally works the baseline during Saturday's game against St. Peter's.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
"I was a basket case today," said West Virginia coach John Beilein. "That young man Keydren Clark worried me so much. I remember watching Calvin Murphy getting 50 on people and as you can see we didn't have the right answers to stop him from getting his points. Their other kids played pretty well, too, so there aren't many people that come in and put 70 on us."
Fischer, Tyrone Sally, Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle combined to score 69 of the Mountaineers’ 82 points. Fischer made 11 of 13 field goal attempts in 29 minutes of action.
"The game plan was to play off of him because they use him to reverse the ball," said St. Peter's coach Bob Leckie. "We wanted Fischer to shoot the ball and he shot it well today. He was 11 for 13 and that was a coach's decision, so blame me."
"He can really shoot it and most people don't want their 7-foot guy shooting 15-footers but he is as good as anybody we have on the team," said Beilein. "There is one particular cut that we run that opens him up at times and he's very good at knocking that shot down."
Sally contributed 16 points and nine rebounds while Gansey, making his first start after sitting out last year as a transfer from St. Bonaventure, contributed 16 points, four boards and seven assists. Pittsnogle came off the bench to add 13 points on five of seven shooting.
West Virginia made 64 percent of its field goal attempts in the first half and finished the game hitting 33 of 59 for 55.9 percent. The Mountaineers made nine of 27 from three-point range, and used six three-point baskets to build a 12-point halftime lead.
After trailing 8-4, the Mountaineers went on an 8-2 run to take a 12-10 advantage. A pair of Herber free throws started the run and back-to-back threes by Sally and Patrick Beilein off the bench got the Mountaineers going.
Another wide open three by Pittsnogle built West Virginia’s lead to five at 12:18. Leading 23-20 with 7:34 left, WVU got a short jumper by Fischer, a three from Herber and a layup by Sally to make the score 30-24. Another three by Sally gave West Virginia a nine-point advantage and West Virginia got its margin to 10 on a three-point play by Pittsnogle at 2:37.
A three by Mike Gansey and a turnaround jumper by Pittsnogle gave the Mountaineers their biggest lead of the first half at 15, 41-26.
St. Peter’s used a 5-2 run over the remaining 1:15 to trim its deficit to 12 at the break.
West Virginia got its lead to 16 three different times at the start of the second half before St. Peter’s went on a 7-0 run to cut West Virginia’s lead to nine.
Sally answered the run with a fast break layup to put the Mountaineers back up by 11, 53-42 with 13:08. West Virginia’s biggest lead of the second half came at 2:39 when Pittsnogle hit his second three of the game to make the score 78-62.
West Virginia had 24 assists on 33 baskets for the game.
"I think that is up in the 70 (percent) range as a percentage of baskets so we're passing it really well," said Beilein.
Keydren Clark, the nation’s top scorer last year, finished with 28 points on 10 of 20 shooting for the Peacocks. Terrance Watkins contributed 19.
St. Peter’s (0-1) shot 45.9 percent for the game but out-rebounded the Mountaineers, 33-29.
"Coach Beilein obviously recruits players that can shoot the ball and it's easier to recruit them than to teach them how to shoot," said Leckie. "They're getting better as time goes on. Sally is developing into a nice player; I didn't think Herber had a great game tonight but he's a great player, too. On any given night any one of those guys can step up and be the star."
The Mountaineers return to action Wednesday night to face a 1-3 Duquesne team at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh.
