On To Kansas City
November 13, 2005 05:22 PM | General
November 13, 2005
GAME INFO: BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
CSTV All-ACCESS: 
BEILEIN POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – No. 14-ranked West Virginia used a 21-2 run at the start of the second half to turn a five-point Wofford halftime lead into a 61-41 blowout victory for the Mountaineers Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum in the second round of the Guardians Classic.
 |
||
| Joe Herber handed out 10 assists against Wofford Sunday to help West Virginia to a 61-41 victory in the Guardians Classic.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
With the win, the Mountaineers (2-0) now advance to the semifinal round of the Guardians Classic next Monday night in Kansas City versus the winner of the Austin, Texas regional. Both games will be televised by ESPN2.
“If everyone wins their pod it will be four teams that will be either nationally ranked or close to nationally ranked,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “But we weren’t a nationally ranked team in the first half of this game, that’s for sure.”
Forward Frank Young keyed West Virginia’s second half run with eight straight points to give the Mountaineers a 27-24 lead. A J.D. Collins lay up and a three from Patrick Beilein gave West Virginia an eight-point advantage, 32-24. Another three by Collins and a Mike Gansey lay up put the Mountaineers up by 11, 37-26, with 13:46 remaining.
West Virginia’s biggest lead of the game was 21 points with 7:30 remaining.
The Mountaineers’ second half overcame a sluggish start that saw them make just 8 of 27 first-half field goal attempts including 1 of 10 from three-point range. Center Kevin Pittsnogle scored 13 of West Virginia’s 19 first-half points and finished the game with 19. The Martinsburg native also pulled down a season-high eight rebounds and was named the Morgantown Regional MVP.
“He’s been working very hard to get himself into game shape,” said Beilein. “I saw him jump better and look quicker than at any time all year. That’s a good sign.”
West Virginia had a seven-minute stretch in the first half without scoring a basket and only had three field goals over the remaining 10 minutes of the first half.
“In the first half Wofford played great,” said Beilein. “Thank goodness they didn’t shoot the ball the way they were capable of or it might have been 15 at the half.
“We started to press a little bit and go away from what we normally do,” Beilein said. ‘There was no big fiery speech at halftime, I just told them to keep taking good shots and we’ll start making them.”
Patrick Beilein came off the bench to score all of his 12 points in the second half. Young chipped in with 10, also all in the second half.
Joe Herber handed out 10 assists and grabbed eight rebounds in a fine all-around floor game. This is the second straight game the senior has handed out 10 assists in a game. Mike Gansey, who scored a game-high 22 points last night against Louisiana Monroe, finished the game with just 7 points on 3 of 9 shooting.
West Virginia shot just 37.3 percent for the game (22 of 59) including 9 of 27 from three-point range. Eight of those threes came in the second half.
Beilein says the problems that West Virginia has had in the early going are easily correctable.
“Gansey and Johannes not shooting well at the foul line can be fixed and we’ve had a couple of bad decisions in resets, but when they go into the film room tomorrow they’ll get better in that hour because they’ll see it for themselves,” Beilein said.
Wofford got 11 points from guard Eric Marshall and 10 from forward Howard Wilkerson.
Wofford (1-1) committed 20 turnovers and had a very difficult time solving West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone defense in the second half, shooting just 28 percent in the second half and 34.6 percent for the game. The Terriers were 2 of 21 from behind the three-point arc.
“We played the 1-3-1 zone great … it was very tough for Wofford to have one day to prep for it,” Beilein said. “In the second half it was incredible. Wofford scored like 6 points in 25 possessions against it.”
In the consolation game earlier today, Fairleigh Dickinson defeated Louisiana Monroe 74-58 behind Andrea Crosariol’s 18 points and 11 rebounds.
“It will be very good for us to take this week, examine the film, and get ready to play against some tremendous teams,” said Beilein. “To win the Guardians Classic would be absolutely terrific. I’m glad that we’re in this situation to play against the best.”
