Pirate Power
February 14, 2006 10:35 PM | General
February 14, 2006
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Seton Hall played like a team eager to make amends for its 42-point home loss to Connecticut last Saturday, and No. 11-rated West Virginia played like a team on the last leg of a three-game road trip. The result: a Seton Hall 71-64 victory Tuesday night at Continental Airlines Arena.
 |
||
| Seton Hall's Kelly Whitney looks to the basket as he is double-teamed by West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle, left, and Frank Young, right, during first half NCAA basketball Tuesday night, Feb. 14, 2006 in East Rutherford, N.J.
AP Photo/Bill Kostroun |
“We played our tails off: we played as hard as we could and they did everything that we wanted to do but Seton Hall did not turn the ball over and we shot 25 percent (from 3),” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “There were a few times their defense gave us troubles but there were also times we had some great looks that we didn’t knock down.
“What do you do? There’s nothing you can do,” Beilein said.
The Mountaineers, coming off a 13-point win at No. 14 Georgetown on Sunday, had just one day to get ready for a Pirate team having the benefit of playing back-to-back games at home. Consequently, West Virginia got off to a lethargic start and wound up chasing the Pirates for most of the game.
After a Darris Nichols driving lay up gave West Virginia a 21-19 lead, Seton Hall went on a 16-7 run to make it 35-28 on a Stan Gaines short jumper.
A bad start to the second half got West Virginia even further behind. The Pirates scored eight straight points to begin the second half, and opened up a 12-point 43-31 lead that forced Beilein to use a 30-second timeout at 18:29.
The Pirates had their biggest lead of the game at 14, 48-34, on a free throw by Kelly Whitney.
West Virginia (18-6, 9-2) worked the deficit down to 10 on a Pittsnogle basket inside, and then got it to seven on a 3 from the corner by Pittsnogle with 11 minutes remaining. The Mountaineers continued to chip away, whittling Seton Hall’s lead to five, 54-49, on another Pittsnogle 3 from the wing. West Virginia had a couple of more opportunities to make it interesting with about four minutes left in the game. But Mike Gansey missed two open 3s and also couldn’t come up with a Frank Young bounce pass on a two-on-one fast break opportunity that could have resulted in an easy basket.
A frustrated Gansey’s hit his hand on the scorer’s table after getting a brief rest. Beilein took that opportunity to give his star guard some words of encouragement.
“Mike played his tail off, he just couldn’t make shots,” Beilein said of Gansey’s 5-for-14 shooting performance. “You’ve just got to pat him on the head, say ‘I love you Mike and let’s keep going.’”
Two more Pittsnogle baskets kept Seton Hall’s lead at six, but Grant Billmeier knocked down an open 15-footer from the baseline with 30.8 seconds left that proved to be the dagger.
Kelly Whitney scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Seton Hall, now 16-7, 7-4. Brian Laing, who came into the game averaging just six points per game, finished with 19 and Billmeier had 10. Laing’s 19 points were four better than his previous season-high of 15 scored against Marist. Forty four of Seton Hall’s 71 points came in the paint and the Pirates’ front line of Whitney, Laing and Billmeier went a combined 18 for 25.
“They had guys making shots from the corner who were shooting 24 percent and we’ve got guys shooting 50 percent missing open looks,” Beilein said.
Pittsnogle led West Virginia with 24 points, Gansey added 14 points and grabbed a team-best nine rebounds. Joe Herber scored 10 points and he set the school record for career starts with 119.
The Mountaineers were 8 of 32 from 3-point range and shot 37.7 percent overall (23 for 61). Seton Hall has now defeated West Virginia four straight times at Continental Airlines Arena dating back to 2002.
“Everybody is fatigued this time of the year and we’re just not going to shoot a high percentage every single night,” Beilein said. “On those nights we’ve got to turn the other team over and we just could not do it.”
The Pirates are also now 3-3 this year against ranked teams. Seton Hall students stormed the court when the game was completed.
“We’re going to have some nights like these and they’re a very good defensive team,” Beilein said. “There’s a reason they went to North Carolina State and blew one of the best teams in the country out. They get it clicking a little bit and they’re very athletic.”
The Mountaineers finish the three-game road trip 1-2 and have another tough assignment Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum facing No. 1-Connecticut, which was upset at Villanova Monday night.
