It's Big Monday
February 19, 2006 09:23 PM | General
February 19, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia was eyeball to eyeball with the No. 1-ranked team in the country on Saturday, trailing by just three points to Connecticut with 1:17 remaining before finally losing 81-75 in a battle for second place in the Big East standings.
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| West Virginia's Joe Herber became the 43rd player in school history to score 1,000 points against Connecticut on Saturday. The senior now shows 1,004 points for his career.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
West Virginia (18-7, 9-3) had its chances to either tie the game or go ahead, but clutch baskets by Husky forwards Rudy Gay and Rashad Anderson gave Connecticut its 23rd victory of the season.
“I thought we gave them everything they could handle,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
The Mountaineers were able to score 12 more points than Connecticut is allowing per game this season. “The biggest thing I’m happy about is scoring 75 points against this team,” said Beilein.
West Virginia has little time to think about its performance on Saturday against the Huskies. The team left early Sunday afternoon for Syracuse, N.Y., to take on Syracuse Monday night in the Carrier Dome. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
“Welcome to the Big East,” says Beilein.
The Orange got an important 79-66 win over Louisville on Saturday night at home to boost their overall record to 18-8 and 6-6 in conference play. Of Syracuse’s eight losses, six have come against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 poll.
In its most recent outing Syracuse overcame a 36-35 halftime deficit to register an important victory over Louisville. Gerry McNamara scored 30 points on 10 of 16 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists in an outstanding all-around performance.
The 6-foot-2-inch senior guard is averaging 16.5 points per game to lead the Orange. Syracuse has three other starters averaging double figures: 6-8 forward Demetris Nichols (14.6 ppg.), 6-4 guard Eric Devendorf (11.8 ppg.) and 6-9 forward Terrence Roberts (10.6 ppg.).
Prior to the Louisville win, the Syracuse bench had been called out by Coach Jim Boeheim for its erratic and sometimes ineffective play. Louie McCroskey missed a week because he was upset about a lack of playing time, Josh Wright has struggled with his shot and Matt Gorman hasn’t been able to work his way past starters Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins.
But against Louisville, the Syracuse bench accounted for 24 points and 13 rebounds in a combined 86 minutes worth of action. Syracuse’s bench play might be what the team needed to pull itself out of a two-week funk that included a 23-point loss at Connecticut and a 17-point loss at home to Cincinnati.
“Louie, Matt, Arinze (Onuaku) and Josh came in and did a tremendous job of controlling the basketball and making sure the ball got to the right places,” Boeheim said of his team’s 13-point win over the Cardinals.
Boeheim was also happy about his team’s improving defensive play.
“I thought this was the first time in a long time that we were active on defense in our zone,” he said.
“We got to their shooters: we didn’t give them good looks,” Boeheim said. “We’ve been letting too many people get easy looks and teams in this league are going to make those shots.”
West Virginia shot 50 percent overall for the game against Connecticut, but was just 10 of 28 from 3-point range for 35.7 percent. Had it shot a little better from behind the arc, West Virginia might have pulled off the upset. Mike Gansey scored 25 to snap out of a tough seven-game stretch in which he was shooting just 41.3 percent (31 of 75) and averaging only 13 points per game.
“(Saturday) he trusted himself and he played well,” said Beilein. “When he made his first shot that was big.”
Gansey is averaging 18.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Six-eleven senior Kevin Pittsnogle is the only other WVU player averaging double figures with a team-best 19 points-per-game average. He scored 15 on Saturday against UConn.
According to Beilein’s plan on Saturday, the team was to go through a light workout on Sunday and another light shoot around on Monday in preparation for the Orange.
“We had 16 minutes of live (leading up to the Connecticut game),” Beilein said. “We’re not even going to break a sweat (in preparation for Syracuse).”
Briefly: Analyst Bill Raftery will again work West Virginia’s game against Syracuse on Monday night, switching from CBS to ESPN … also joining Raftery on the telecast are Sean McDonough and Jay Bilas … West Virginia’s meeting against Syracuse will be the first time since 1997 (13 meetings) that the Orange aren’t nationally ranked … the Mountaineers are finishing a grueling stretch of games in which they have played four of their last five on the road including four games in the last eight days … all four teams West Virginia has faced in the last eight days are in the CollegeRPI.com Top 35 … with his 14 points against Connecticut on Saturday, guard Joe Herber became the 43rd player in WVU history to score 1,000 career points; the senior now shows 1,004 to rank 42nd on the school career scoring list … senior Kevin Pittsnogle needs just nine points to pass Mark Workman for 12th place on the school’s career scoring list with 1,553 points … Pittsnogle (at 6-feet-11-inches) has already scored more points than any other player standing 6-10 or taller in school history … Syracuse made just 19 of 46 from the free-throw line against Louisville on Saturday night and is shooting 64.1 percent for the season ... fans not able to watch the game on television can listen to the MSN broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 125.
