Near Miss
November 21, 2005 09:55 PM | General
November 21, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – No. 13 West Virginia had its chances to upset No. 2 Texas in the semifinals of the Guardians Classic Monday night, but it couldn’t come up with the free throws it needed down the stretch to knock off the Longhorns in a 76-75 loss.
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| Texas forward Brad Buckman, right, and West Virginia forward Mike Gansey (20) battles for a rebound during the first half in the Guardians Classic Monday, Nov 21, 2005 in Kansas City, Mo.
AP photo/Charlie Riedel |
“Our kids are hurting right now,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We really had it going our way and we were in a position to win and we didn’t.”
West Virginia (2-1) looked like it was in control of the game leading 75-72 after a Mike Gansey basket with 1:30 remaining, but the Mountaineers couldn’t cash in from the foul line, missing three straight one-and-one opportunities and that opened the door for Texas, now 3-0, to pull out the win.
“It was uncharacteristic that we miss three straight one-and-ones and that’s going to happen, maybe not three in a row with two great foul shooters, but it happened tonight,” Beilein said.
Joe Herber’s miss off the front side of the rim with 52.7 seconds left gave Texas a chance to either cut the score to one or tie it with a three, but P.J. Tucker was called for traveling trying to make a move in the lane with 32 seconds left.
WVU had another opportunity to extend its lead when Texas fouled Kevin Pittsnogle with 30 seconds remaining, but the senior couldn’t convert his try. On the other end Tucker was able to collect a missed shot and put it back in to reduce West Virginia’s lead to one, 75-74.
Once more Texas fouled Pittsnogle with 14.7 seconds left and once again Pittsnogle couldn’t connect. Texas took the lead, 76-75, when LaMarcus Aldridge retrieved a missed shot and dropped in the stick back to give the Longhorns a one-point lead with 3.6 seconds remaining.
West Virginia called a timeout to design a play to cover the length of the floor. Patrick Beilein’s inbound pass was collected by Joe Herber at mid-court and Herber flipped a pass to a wide open Mike Gansey underneath the basket. Gansey’s try for the win was blocked by Aldridge ahead of the buzzer. There was contact on the play but the official underneath the basket determined it was not a foul.
“It looked like it was clean but we put ourselves in that position to win the game and we couldn’t do it,” Beilein said.
The fifth-year WVU coach says the play designed at the end was similar to the play his team ran to beat IUPUI a couple of years ago in Morgantown.
“We haven’t had to use that play much be we practice it quite often,” Beilein said. “This time that was probably the best look we’ve ever had out of it.”
Free throws and rebounding were West Virginia’s undoing. The Mountaineers finished the game making 8 of 12 from the line and were completely dominated on the backboards 41-22 by a bigger and much more physical Texas team. Eleven of Texas’ 41 rebounds were offensive.
“It’s tough to beat a team like this when they’re going to get the put-backs,” Beilein said. “We knew Buckman and Aldridge were both eight-rebound games and we’ll have to put two of our guys together to get eight rebounds. It’s hard for us to defend the offensive rebound and there was nothing we could do about it.”
West Virginia was able to overcome its rebounding deficiencies by forcing 24 Texas turnovers. The loss erases a terrific all-around effort by Gansey, who made 12 of his 20 field-goal attempts for a game-high 28 points. Gansey scored 13 of West Virginia’s first 24 points while dueling Texas guard Daniel Gibson, who hit five first-half 3s and had 16 of the Texas’ first 27 points. Gansey had 21 of his 28 points by halftime to help the Mountaineers take a 45-40 lead into the locker room.
West Virginia, which led for a good portion of the game, had its biggest lead of 10 at 48-38 midway through the second half before Texas went on a 13-0 run.
Joe Herber finished the game with a season-high 16 points. Pittsnogle had trouble against Texas’ big front line and finished the game 4 of 10 from the field for 9 points and also committed four turnovers.
Freshman Joe Alexander came in and gave the Mountaineers strong minutes off the bench when Joe Herber and Frank Young were both saddled with foul trouble. The 6-foot-8-inch Mt. Airy, Md., resident scored 4 points and made both of his free throw tries.
“I was really pleased with the way Joe Alexander played,” Beilein said. “Our bench was very, very good. You don’t see it in the points. We played against a high-pressure team and had only 11 turnovers. That’s pretty good.”
Gibson scored all of his team-high 20 points in the first half. Tucker finished with 19 points, Aldridge added 15 points and 14 boards and Buckman contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“They have a very good defensive team and they did a great job limiting Kevin’s touches outside the arc and there are not too many big guys that can do that,” Beilein said.
The Mountaineers will play the first game tomorrow night against Kentucky at 7 pm. That game will be televised on ESPNU.
