Men's Basketball: WVU Hangs On In Rochester
November 30, 2005 09:32 PM | General
November 30, 2005
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| Gansey |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mike Gansey scored 28 points and made four consecutive free throws inside of 19 seconds to lead West Virginia to a 66-61 victory over St. Bonaventure Wednesday night at Blue Cross/Blue Shield Arena in Rochester, N.Y.
West Virginia (3-3) may have snapped its three-game losing streak, but it sure wasn’t easy.
“It was just very fortuitous that we were able to come out with a win,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We played well enough defensively in the first half but in the second half, once they got it rocking and rolling, it didn’t seem like any shot they were taking was coming out.”
The Mountaineers nearly blew a 20-point second-half lead, and in fact they did when the Bonnies went on a 21-0 run to take a 46-45 lead on a baseline jumper by Michael Lee, but Gansey answered with a 3 with 6:55 left to put West Virginia back in the lead, 48-46.
“They charged back into the game and they made an incredible run and we couldn’t do anything about it,” said Beilein. “We had media time outs and two time outs I used and we still couldn’t stop it.
“We couldn’t make a shot and we had two bad turnovers to fuel it a little bit, but thank God we had enough resilience and were enough of a veteran team to make some shots,” said Beilein.
A steal and a Gansey lay up and a Patrick Beilein 3 gave West Virginia a 53-46 advantage with 5:33 to go. Trailing 55-48 after a pair of J.D. Collins free throws for the Mountaineers, St. Bonaventure got a Paul Williams follow up basket and a Lee lay up off a 3-point miss from Beilein to pull the Bonnies to within three, 55-52.
After the 3-minute media timeout, St. Bonaventure cut West Virginia’s lead to two, 57-55, when Patrick Lottin converted a 3.
Pittsnogle answered with a basket in the paint to put the Mountaineers back up by four, 59-55, but Lottin once again dialed up a big basket from long range to make it a one-point game, 59-58, with less than 2 minutes remaining.
Beilein’s second 3-point basket of the game with 1:30 left increased West Virginia’s lead to four, 62-58.
“They did so many things to keep us off balance – 2-3 zone, man, trapping in the first half … they did so many things that it kept us off balance a little bit and we needed that because other teams are going to do that and we’ve got to adjust on the fly,” Beilein said.
West Virginia made 24 of 56 field goal attempts for 42.8 percent including 9 of 29 from 3 for 31 percent. St. Bonaventure (2-2) shot 46 percent overall including 56 percent in the second half. The Bonnies were able to pull down 12 offensive rebounds and finished the game with a 37-29 rebounding advantage on the Mountaineers.
In addition to scoring 28 points, Gansey also pulled down 9 rebounds and made 4 steals. The senior made 10 of 19 from the field and was 4 of 9 from 3-point distance.
“He was incredible,” said Beilein of Gansey’s play. “He makes those foul shots at a key time and he came up awful big tonight.”
Kevin Pittsnogle chipped in with 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting. The senior had 6 rebounds.
“Kevin had a great game and we were able to get the ball inside,” Beilein said. “He took only three 3s and made one of them.”
Lee and Ahmad Smith scored 18 points each for St. Bonaventure.
“This was almost like we were at the Reilly Center in St. Bonaventure as far as the crowd,” said Beilein. “I’m so pleased with this win. It would have been tough to rebound from this especially given the 20-point lead.”
West Virginia returns to the Coliseum to take on Washington & Jefferson Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
