Overtime Thriller
February 05, 2005 09:39 PM | General
February 5, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What a 52nd birthday gift for West Virginia University basketball coach John Beilein. His Mountaineer basketball team pulled off an unexpected 83-78 overtime victory over No. 15-rated Pitt Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
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| West Virginia's Tyrone Sally scored 19 points to help West Virginia to an 83-78 victory over Pitt Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“I’m so proud of this team, especially the way we won in overtime,” said Beilein. “We battled hard to get back and they made a shot to tie it. The fact that we were able to get back in the game showed the strength that we haven’t shown in recent games. That shows a lot of resiliency to come back and beat them.”
West Virginia, 13-7, 3-6, knocked off a Pitt team that came into Morgantown having won three straight including back-to-back wins over the past two national champions Connecticut and Syracuse.
Kevin Pittsnogle played perhaps the finest game of his Mountaineer career, pouring in a game-best 27 points and pulling down eight rebounds in extended duty. Pittsnogle saw 34 minutes of action because starting center D’or Fischer was held out of the game due to an upper respiratory infection.
“We found out Thursday that D’or had an upper respiratory infection,” Beilein said. “He woke up this morning and couldn’t do anything so we knew we were going to have to go with Kevin and Luke (Bonner) all night. Kevin was on a mission tonight. He wanted to play well and beat Pitt. I’m so happy for him.”
“(Pittsnogle) was very good,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. “We’ve seen him get going before. Sometimes guys step up and he did that tonight.”
Tyrone Sally also came up big for WVU, scoring 19 points and hitting a pair of critical three-point baskets in the second half. Sally was three of six from three-point range.
Patrick Beilein added 14 and Mike Gansey produced 11.
Chevy Troutman led Pitt, 15-4, 5-3, with 25 points and nine rebounds.
It appeared the Panthers had control of the game midway through the first half, building its lead to nine twice before taking a seven-point, 30-23 lead into the locker room at halftime.
A Chris Taft dunk and a Troutman lay up gave the Panthers and 11-point lead at the start of the second half before West Virginia came to life.
“We needed to get out to a great start in the second half and we got off to a terrible start,” Beilein said. “We needed something good to happen in the second half because we were three or four misses away (from losing) and not having crowds like this the rest of the season.”
Sally got the run going with a pair of free throws and a three by Joe Herber cut Pitt’s lead to six, 34-28, with 16:42 to go.
A Pittsnogle lay up and a three by Sally reduced Pitt’s lead to one before Troutman snapped the Panthers’ three-minute cold spell with a three-point play. Troutman tacked on another basket to give Pitt at six point lead, 39-33.
Pittsnogle answered with a critical three with 13:17 remaining and West Virginia tied the game at 49 on a Mike Gansey layup with 7:49 left.
West Virginia took its first lead of the second half on a three by Pittsnogle at 7:10, and led the Panthers by five after back-to-back threes by Gansey with 4:19 on the clock.
Pitt was able to eventually tie the game at 60 on a jumper by Carl Krauser. The two teams exchanged baskets before Joe Herber’s jumper with 21 seconds left gave WVU a 64-62 advantage.
Antonio Graves missed a jumper with three seconds left, but Troutman was able to work himself free inside to put back the miss to tie it at 64 and send the game into overtime.
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| West Virginia students rush onto the floor to celebrate the Mountaineers' 83-78 victory over Pitt Saturday night.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Taft got the first basket for Pitt in the overtime, but Sally responded with a clutch three that got the crowd back into it. Pittsnogle followed with a steal and eventually was able to convert at the other end by converting a basket and being fouled on the play by Levon Kendall. Pittsnogle’s free throw gave West Virginia a four-point advantage, 70-66.
A Pittsnogle three with 2:08 left got the West Virginia lead to seven, 73-66.
Antonio Graves responded with a three for Pitt to close the gap to four, 73-69.
From there, West Virginia was able to hit its free throws. Beilein and Herber both made a pair, and Gansey hit one of two to give WVU a five-point spread, 77-72.
Beilein iced the game with one second left by hitting a pair with West Virginia up three.
For senior Tyrone Sally, the victory was his first against Pitt in five tries dating back to 2002. “It’s a great feeling knowing that we just beat a team on our home court that personally I was winless against,” he said. “I just compliment my teammates for the way they played tonight and hopefully we can play like that on Wednesday.”
After making just two of 17 three-point tries in the first half, West Virginia found its shooting stroke after the break and finished the game making 13 of 40 for 32.5 percent. WVU was also nearly perfect from the free throw line hitting 18 of 20.
Pitt was 30 of 60 from the floor for 50 percent and held a 39-34 rebounding advantage, but hit five fewer threes and committed 12 turnovers. By comparison, West Virginia had a remarkable 22-to-four assist-to-turnover ratio.
The victory snaps a five-game Panther winning streak in the series and was West Virginia’s third win over a nationally ranked team this season.
“I have a lot of faith in these guys and I know it’s a matter of time before we start to spread people out again,” Beilein said. “I see these kids in practice every day and I see what they can do.”
An announced crowd of 12,135 witnessed the game. Included among them were West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and West Virginia University President David C. Hardesty Jr., who both made appearances in the WVU locker room after the game to congratulate the team on their impressive victory.
The Mountaineers will return to action on Wednesday night to take on Providence at the Coliseum. That game will tip off at 8 pm and will be televised by ESPN Classic as part of the network’s Turn Back the Clock series.
