USF Preview
January 05, 2006 10:45 AM | General
January 5, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia opens Big East play Thursday night against South Florida in the Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla. The game is USF’s first as a member of the Big East.
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| Junior forward Frank Young is averaging 13.5 points over his last two games to lift his season scoring average to 8.7 points per game.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
South Florida heads into Thursday’s game with a 6-7 record, having lost two in a row including a 59-47 home loss to UAB last Friday. Six-two guard James Holmes is USF’s top scorer averaging 19.6 points per game. Six-foot-ten-inch senior center Solomon Jones is averaging 13.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, and also has a team-best 48 blocked shots.
Six-six forwards Melvin Buckley and McHugh Mattis are averaging 12.5 points and 10.0 points per game respectively. South Florida coach Robert McCullum is in his third season with USF where he holds a 27-43 record.
West Virginia, ranked 24th in this week’s AP poll, is playing just its third game in the last 25 days, having beaten Oklahoma, 92-68, in Oklahoma City on Dec. 22 and Canisius, 80-68, at the Coliseum on Dec. 30.
West Virginia (8-3) jumped out to a big lead at halftime and led by 28 early in the second half before the Golden Griffins made a comeback, whittling WVU’s lead to just seven with 1:15 remaining.
Senior center Kevin Pittsnogle scored a career-high 34 points on 12 of 20 shooting that included 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Mike Gansey contributed 15 points and Frank Young added 13.
Pittsnogle boosted his season scoring average to 20.2 points per game and moved into 20th place on the WVU career scoring list with 1,293 points. Gansey is averaging 18.9 points per game and leads the team with six 20-plus scoring games this year.
WVU has won six in a row since dropping three straight to Texas, Kentucky and LSU in late November and four of those six wins have been by 20 points or more.
All five Mountaineer starters are shooting better than 40 percent from the field including two – Gansey and Pittsngole – at better than 50 percent.
West Virginia is looking to snap a two-game losing streak in Big East openers; the USF game marks the third straight year the Mountaineers have opened conference play on the road.
Reserve guard Patrick Beilein needs one more 3-point field goal to tie Chris Leonard’s school record for 3s with 200 set in 1992.
Tip off for the game is set for 7 pm. ESPN Plus (Gary Williams and Bucky Waters) will televise the game locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh. The game can also be purchased as part of ESPN’s Full Court package. The remainder of West Virginia’s schedule will either be on regional or national television.
