WVU Downs No. 20 GW
December 29, 2004 10:05 PM | General
December 29, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Gansey’s 19 points helped West Virginia to a 71-65 upset of No. 20 George Washington Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Mike Gansey scored 19 points to lead West Virginia to a 71-65 win over No. 20 George Washington in Morgantown Wednesday night.
All-Pro Photography/Joe Sadlek photo |
The victory was West Virginia’s first against a nationally ranked non-conference opponent at the WVU Coliseum since 1989 when the Mountaineers defeated No. 22 Pitt 97-93. It was also the Mountaineers’ third victory against a ranked team since Coach John Beilein took over the program during the 2002-03 season.
“We knew this was a GW club that was for real and they were going to come after us,” said Beilein. “But the way we came out in the second half I thought was the difference in the game.”
West Virginia runs its record to 9-0 for the first time since 1960 primarily due to the play of Gansey and senior center D’or Fischer close to the basket. Fischer finished the game with 15 points including nine of 10 from the free throw line.
Both teams started the game at a frenetic pace without much success until GW’s J.R. Pinnock finally hit a jumper three minutes into the game.
The Colonials led 8-3 before a layup by Patrick Beilein and a three by Mike Gansey tied the game at eight. West Virginia led 15-13 on a three by Kevin Pittsnogle and then 17-13 on a Beilein layup with 8:16 remaining.
GW retook the lead at 20-19 with 5:29 remaining on a T.J. Thompson three. West Virginia then got a layup by Gansey, a dunk by Fischer and another layup by Gansey to lead by five, 25-20.
A Tyrone Sally three gave WVU a seven-point lead and a jumper by freshman Darris Nichols with 14 seconds left pushed the Mountaineers’ lead to nine before Carl Elliott’s three ahead of the halftime buzzer cut West Virginia’s lead to six, 32-26.
A strong second-half flurry pushed West Virginia’s lead to 15 at 43-28 and then 46-31. The Mountaineers got things going with a three by Joe Herber, a layup by Fischer and a couple of threes by Gansey and Sally pushed them out to their biggest lead of the game.
But West Virginia went cold from the field after that, failing to register a field goal for nearly 10 minutes in allowing GW, now 8-2, to get back into the game.
“We knew they were going to make that run; they’re so quick and so athletic,” said Beilein.
The Colonials trimmed West Virginia’s lead to six on one of two free throws by Thompson at 9:18, and then to three on a fastbreak layup by Elliott with 3:39 remaining to make the score 61-58, West Virginia.
Three free throws by Thompson with 3:08 remaining cut West Virginia’s lead to one, 62-61, before Gansey finally ended the field goal drought with a breakaway layup with 2:19 left.
Elliott answered with a jumper to bring GW to within one at 2:19 and then Fischer responded with a dunk following a timeout call by Beilein. A pair of Fischer free throws with 32 seconds left lifted the Mountaineers’ lead to five before the senior iced the game with 6.2 second left following two more free throws.
West Virginia won the game from the foul throw line connecting on 16 of 22 in the second half. WVU was also able to hold its own on the boards being out-rebounded by just three, 37-34 after surrendering 23 offensive rebounds to the Colonials last year.
“It’s a far cry from last year because we’re a little bit better this year,” said Beilein of his team’s rebounding.
Nichols had a solid game relieving starter J.D. Collins who was saddled with early foul trouble. The freshman finished the game with nine points and hit a couple of key baskets to help West Virginia get the lead in the first half.
“Darris gave us a big lift, especially in the first half,” said Beilein. “He is not understanding everything we’re doing but he’s getting better by the minute.”
Overall, the Mountaineers made 22 of 49 field goal attempts for 44.9 percent including nine of 22 from three-point range for 40.9 percent.
“They were not going to allow us to reverse the ball,” explained Beilein. “They were going to try blow up everything and not allow us to reverse the ball and just keep everything on one side of the floor. So we just tried to drive the ball.”
George Washington, which came into the game averaging 86.7 points, was held to 24 of 62 from the field for 38.7 percent in scoring a season-low 65 points.
Pinnock and Thompson each scored 14 for the Colonials, while Mile Hall added 13 off the bench. Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who tore up the Mountaineers for 23 points and 11 rebounds in last year’s 70-64 GW win in the MCI Classic, managed just 11 points and five rebounds before fouling out of the game.
The Mountaineers were also the beneficiaries of a rare December sellout, making it the first time since 1982 West Virginia has sold out a non-conference game.
“When you think right now that our students are gone and 10,000 people are in Jacksonville and we’ve got a sell-out tonight … this is why we all love West Virginia,” said Beilein.
West Virginia’s win was particularly important to a team that doesn’t have many quality non-conference wins to date and came into tonight’s game with an RPI of 65, according to CollegeRPI.com despite winning its first eight games. The Colonials, meanwhile, had an RPI of eight.
WVU puts its unblemished record on the line once again this Sunday at No. 17 N.C. State in Raleigh before opening Big East play at Villanova on Wednesday
