WVU Bags Key Win
March 06, 2004 10:04 PM | General
March 6, 2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – D’or Fischer and Kevin Pittsnogle scored 19 points each to lead West Virginia to a 58-53 win at Miami Saturday night at the Convocation Center.
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| Junior D'or Fischer pulls down a rebound during West Virginia's 58-53 win at Miami Saturday night. (AP photo) |
Tyrone Sally contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds to help West Virginia collect its 15th victory of the season and improve its chances of earning an NIT bid in Coach John Beilein’s second season coaching the Mountaineers.
“I don’t look ahead on the schedule but when I saw that we had three .500 teams on the road and two nationally ranked teams at home I knew this was going to be a rough stretch,” said Beilein. “I knew if we won any of these games it was going to be the biggest win of the year and I think this was.”
Miami, meanwhile, had a perfect opportunity to play its way into the Big East tournament after Georgetown lost at home to Virginia Tech, but the Hurricanes couldn’t pull off the victory in their last season playing in the Big East. Miami finishes its season with a 14-16 overall record.
Miami got off to a good start when Darius Rice hit a three-point basket to put them up 3-0 to start the game, but the Mountaineers scored the next nine points to take a 9-3 lead.
WVU (15-12, 7-9) built its lead to seven twice at 19-12 on a Pittsnogle three and at 21-14 on a backdoor slam by Sally.
Miami responded with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 21 before Fischer stopped it with a short jumper. A scoop shot by Sally and a running bank shot by Joe Herber right before the buzzer gave West Virginia a 27-24 halftime lead.
The Mountaineers built their lead back to six on another three by Pittsnogle before Miami responded with back-to-back three-point baskets by Guillermo Diaz and Rice tied the game at 48.
Miami (14-16, 4-12) took its first lead of the second half on one of two free throws by Rice to make it 49-48, and led again 53-51 on a Rice baseline jumper.
“They started screening more within the zone and got some open looks,” said Beilein. “I think we played three different zone defenses because we didn’t think in the man-to-man that we could match up with them.”
Sally answered Rice’s basket with a hoop of his own to tie the game at 53, and the Mountaineers’ added another bucket when Fischer managed to tip in Patrick Beilein’s driving layup attempt.
“That was huge,” said Beilein of Fischer’s put-back basket.
Miami had its chances to either tie it or take the lead. Trailing 53-51, Robert Hite turned the basketball over when he stepped on the sideline with 1:36 left.
The Hurricanes also attempted to pass the ball inside but the ball was deflected by Sally and saved by J.D. Collins with 55 seconds remaining.
Miami also came up with nothing on a third try to tie the game, trailing 56-53. Darius’ Rice’s long three-point attempt with plenty of time left on the clock was unsuccessful and West Virginia’s Joe Herber was able to secure the rebound. He got the ball to Patrick Beilein who was fouled by Armondo Surratt with 11.5 seconds left.
Beilein made both foul shots to put West Virginia up by five.
West Virginia was able to snap its season-long four-game losing streak by finally making some baskets and overcoming 20 turnovers. WVU hit 22 of 42 field goal attempts for 52.3 percent after shooting a combined 37 percent in its losses to Pitt, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Syracuse.
WVU’s two big men Fischer and Pittsnogle finished shooting a combined 15 of 19 while Sally hit 4 of 7 field goal attempts. Forty nine of West Virginia’s 58 points came from those three.
“The front line was absolutely terrific tonight,” said Beilein.
Guard Joe Herber, who it a big three-point basket to tie the game at 51, scored 7 and handed out a game-high 10 assists.
Rice was the only Hurricane player to reach double figures scoring 16 points in his final game at Miami.
The victory paired with the Villanova loss means West Virginia is locked into a No. 10 seed for the Big East tournament beginning Wednesday. The Mountaineers will face either Notre Dame or Seton Hall Wednesday night at 7 pm at Madison Square Garden.
Notebook: West Virginia won for just the second time on the road in Big East play this year … both road wins have come against teams not making the Big East tournament this year (St. John’s was the other) … WVU finishes with a 2-6 conference road record and is 3-6 overall in road games this season … junior center D’or Fischer has come on strong as of late, producing back-to-back season-high 19-point efforts against Syracuse and Miami … Fischer finishes the regular season averaging a team-best 10.8 points per game … Fischer was credited with three blocks Saturday night against Miami to give him 102 for the regular season … Fischer has already obliterated the season shot-block record previously held by Marcus Goree.
