New Hampshire Preview
December 20, 2004 05:54 PM | General
December 20, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia plays host to non-conference foe New Hampshire Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum. It’s the last home game for the Mountaineers before Christmas break before resuming play against nationally ranked George Washington on Wednesday, Dec. 29.
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| D'or Fischer scores two of his 11 points last Saturday against James Madison.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
West Virginia (7-0) faces a 4-4 New Hampshire team that lost 69-67 to Dartmouth 10 days ago on Saturday, Dec. 11. New Hampshire shows victories against Liberty, Suffolk, Army and Harvard and losses to Boston College, Boston University, Brown and Dartmouth.
Six-foot-eight, 220-pound sophomore forward Blagoj Janes led the Wildcats with 18 points against Dartmouth and averages a team-best 13 points per game. Six-one guard Jermaine Anderson averages 11.3 points per game while 6-foot-8, 250-pound Ben Sturgill averages 10.8 points and a team-best 7.3 rebounds per game.
New Hampshire is also expected to start 6-foot-8 freshman forward Mike Christensen and 5-foot-8 freshman point guard Chris Vetrano.
Last year Coach Phil Rowe helped guide the Wildcats to victories in four of their last six games including its first post-season victory since 1995. In 18 seasons in college Rowe owns a 216-255 record.
“They seem to have the pieces in place to start to make a move in that conference (America East) where Vermont has now made a move and for a while Northeastern and BU just ruled it,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off a 77-48 victory over James Madison Saturday night. It was the fourth time the Mountaineers have held an opponent to less than 55 points for the first time in 55 years.
The Mountaineers got 15 points off the bench from Patrick Beilein, who averages 10.9 points per game and has made all but three of his field-goal attempts from behind the three-point line.
Junior Kevin Pittsnogle has also been a big boost coming off the bench averaging 10 points per game along with freshman Darris Nichols, who has been picking up his production of late.
“I think Patrick and Kevin probably have as good of understanding of what we try to do offensively and defensively,” said Beilein. “The two of them aren’t superior athletes as far as running and jumping but their mind is so quick that they can make up for that.
“Now you add Darris to that and Darris admitted to me today that the game is slowing down a little bit for him,” Beilein added.
West Virginia’s starting lineup remains 6-foot-7 Tyrone Sally (14.7 ppg., 4.4 rpg.) and 6-foot-4 Mike Gansey (11.0 ppg., 4.7 rpg.) at the forwards, with 6-foot-6 Joe Herber (10.0 ppg., 3.9 rpg.) and 5-foot-10 J.D. Collins (3.7 ppg., 2.9 apg.) at guard. Six-foot-11 D’or Fischer (9.1 ppg., 4.3 rpg.) is expected to start at center.
Tuesday’s game will be the second time these two schools have met on the hardwood. West Virginia last played New Hampshire during the 1975-76 season in Morgantown with the Mountaineers winning 91-67.
Game time is set for 7 pm. MSN radio will provide live coverage of the game.
