Georgetown Preview
February 12, 2006 01:29 PM | General
February 12, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In the midst of a three-game road trip against Pitt, Georgetown and Seton Hall, the West Virginia University basketball team must feel like it's plowing its way through a foot of snow. Well, as fate would have it West Virginia arrived in Washington, D.C., Saturday night for its game today with Georgetown just as the nation’s capital was getting hammered with a snowstorm that dumped as much as 20 inches on some parts of the city.
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| West Virginia's J.D. Collins scores two of season-high nine points in a 57-53 loss at Pitt in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006.
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic |
The timing couldn’t be any more appropriate for a Mountaineer team facing a storm of their own in the form of a Georgetown basketball team that is one of the hottest in the country right now.
The No. 15-rated Hoyas have won seven in a row including wins over No. 2-rated Duke and No. 14 Pitt. Most recently, Georgetown’s smothering defense limited St. John’s to just 32.7 percent shooting in an easy 64-41 victory over the Red Storm at the MCI Center last Thursday night. Georgetown also forced 16 turnovers. No Hoya played more than 29 minutes and they should be well rested facing a West Virginia team coming off a 57-63 loss at Pittsburgh Thursday night.
In the Pitt game No. 9-rated West Virginia shot 34 percent and its leading scorer Kevin Pittsnogle was 0 for 12 before fouling out with more than six minutes remaining. It was the first scoreless game of the season for WVU’s top scorer (averaging 18.6 ppg.), and Pittsnogle is currently in a 4 of 29 shooting funk in his last two games against Cincinnati and Pitt.
Mike Gansey, averaging 18.2 points per game, has also been in a cold spell, going 9 for his last 23 after shooting nearly 60 percent during West Virginia’s first 20 games.
The Mountaineers (17-5, 8-1) have a win over Georgetown already to their credit, knocking off the Hoyas 68-61 in Morgantown. In that game Pittsnogle scored 23 points to lead four double-figure Mountaineer scorers. Gansey added 15, Patrick Beilein came off the bench to contribute 13 and Frank Young scored 10.
Six-eight forward Jeff Green led Georgetown with 17 points. Seven-two center Roy Hibbert added 16.
“Georgetown is probably playing as well as anybody in the league,” Gansey said. “And we’ve already beat them once, so you know they’ll be thinking about that.”
Senior Brandon Bowman leads a well balanced Hoya team by averaging 12 points per game. The 6-8 forward is also grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game and is shooting 48.1 percent from the field. Hibbert is averaging 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, while Green posts averages of 11.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
Georgetown is one of the best shooting teams in the conference, making 48.5 percent of its field-goal attempts. Its four losses this year have come against Vanderbilt, Illinois, West Virginia and Connecticut.
Last year West Virginia was tied with Georgetown with three minutes remaining before the Hoyas pulled away with a 67-60 victory.
Game time is 7 pm due to a Washington Wizards game against Philadelphia this afternoon. The contest will be televised by ESPN Plus (Lou Canellis and Bob Wenzel). Stations in West Virginia carrying the game include Charter (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WVFX (Clarksburg), WVTX (Wheeling), WNPA (Pittsburgh) and ESPN Full Court.
Following Sunday’s game, West Virginia will travel to New Jersey for a Tuesday night game at Seton Hall.
