Not Tonight
January 25, 2006 11:09 PM | General
January 25, 2006
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – For the second straight year Marshall made its shots when it counted and West Virginia didn’t, and for the second straight year the Herd pulled off a stunning 58-52 upset over the No. 9-ranked Mountaineers in Charleston.
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| West Virginia's Patrick Beilein ties the game with this driving lay up in the second half against Marshall in Charleston. The Thundering Herd upset the No. 9-rated Mountaineers 58-52.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Last year it was Ronny Dawn and A. W. Hamilton raining 3s on West Virginia. This year it was Tre Whitted and Markel Humphrey bombing away for the Herd.
“It was almost déjà vu,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We just could not shoot the ball. We shoot 17 percent from 3 and we’re not going to win a whole lot of games doing that.”
Marshall got the game it wanted – a slow-tempo, defensive affair where every possession counted – and made the most of it, upsetting a top 10-ranked team for only the second time in school history and the first since beating No. 8 St. John’s 110-107 in Huntington on Dec. 18, 1971.
West Virginia (14-4) never looked in sync all evening, leading by four early at 14-10 before Marshall used a 12-4 run to take a 22-18 lead after Joe Miles knocked down a 3 just ahead of the three-minute time out.
Marshall (8-9) built its lead to six, 24-18, on a short basket inside by Travis Aikens. A pair of Mike Gansey free throws reduced West Virginia’s deficit to 24-20 at halftime.
In the second half, the two teams traded baskets until the Mountaineers finally pulled to within two, 42-40, on three free throws by Joe Herber. A possession later, West Virginia had a chance to tie the game but Kevin Pittsnogle missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
On the other end Humphrey knocked down a long 3 with the shot clock winding down, and then Marshall’s Mark Patton out-hustled West Virginia for a loose-ball basket to put the Herd up by seven, 47-40, with 4:22 remaining.
Joe Herber responded with a 3 from the corner, and two Pittsnogle free throws cut Marshall’s lead to two, 47-45, with 3:40 left.
A double dribble call on Marshall’s Ryan Lamb gave the ball back to West Virginia with an opportunity to tie the game, but Patrick Beilein turned the ball right back over to Marshall when his pass to a cutting Gansey was too low for him to handle.
The Mountaineers finally tied it 47 with 2:09 remaining when Beilein took it all the way to the basket for a lay up, but Patton got the lead back for Marshall with a tough drive to the basket. After a Beilein 3-point miss, Whitted hit the shot of the game with the shot clock winding down. The 6-4 junior took the ball well past the arc and fired up a fade-away, turnaround 3 that hit nothing but net with 46 seconds left.
Pittsnogle answered with a 3 on West Virginia’s end to keep the Mountaineers in the game before Marshall iced it by hitting six straight free throws.
“We didn’t create enough turnovers and they did a great job with the zone,” Beilein said. “They made some tough shots – maybe four shot-clock shots – and we did not.”
Patton earned Toyota Capital Classic player of the game honors with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds. Miles contributed 13 and Whitted added 11.
Pittsnogle, WVU’s player of the game, scored 20 but converted on 7 of 18 shots. Gansey had 10 but like Pittsnogle, couldn’t find the basket making just 3 of 12. Joe Herber contributed 10 as well.
West Virginia hit just 18 of 52 field goal attempts for a season-low 34.6 percent. The Mountaineers were a frigid 5 of 29 from 3-point range for 17 percent.
“I thought we got several good looks – we just didn’t make any,” said Beilein. “You’ve got the two best 3-point shooters in the country in Kevin Pittsnogle and Mike Gansey and the go 3 for 16 and I wouldn’t trade them for anybody. Pat goes 1 for 5 and Frank Young goes 0 for 3.
“I look at these stats and I say, how the heck did we keep it that close?”
Marshall owned the backboards, out-rebounding West Virginia 42-28 including grabbing 15 offensive rebounds. The Herd also took care of the basketball, committing six fewer turnovers (11) than its season average of 17 per game. Marshall’s bench out-scored West Virginia’s 21-5.
“In the first half I thought we were just a little lethargic,” Beilein said. “That created a little bit of a gap. In the second half they only got four offensive rebounds and we played our tails off. We just couldn’t make shots drop.”
Marshall only made 22 of its 58 field-goal attempts for 37.9 percent, but hit two more 3s than the Mountaineers which proved to be the difference.
The loss snaps West Virginia’s season-long 12-game winning streak and represents the first time since 1981-82 that Marshall has won back-to-back games against the Mountaineers. Marshall is now 7-52 all-time against nationally ranked teams.
“(Marshall) played a great game and they’re getting better every day; I thought they just played excellent defense on us,” Beilein said. “We did all of the things we wanted to do to get open shots and they just didn’t go in.
“This is going to happen in the Big East and this is going to happen forever and we’ve got all kinds of crutches we can use now,” Beilein said. “All the travel, all the things that have happened but we have to just face up and say these things are going to happen and we’ve got to work harder so we don’t allow 11 offensive rebounds in the first half.”
West Virginia returns to Big East play on Sunday at St. John’s in Madison Square Garden. That game will be a doubleheader with the WVU-St. John’s women and will tip off at 2:30 pm.
