Mountaineers Out-Gun Marshall
January 24, 2007 11:14 PM | General
January 24, 2007
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Frank Young matched his career-high with 25 points and Joe Alexander scored all 13 of his points in the second half to help West Virginia to a 77-63 victory over Marshall at the 2007 Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic in Charleston Wednesday night.
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| Frank Young matched his career high of 25 points to help West Virginia to a 77-63 victory over Marshall in the 2007 Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic in Charleston.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
West Virginia dug itself an early hole, getting just 6 points from Young for the first 11 minutes of the game. In the meantime, Mark Dorris gave Marshall its biggest lead of the game at 13 with 5:23 left in the half.
“In the first half their guards really guarded the heck out of us,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “They really played terrific defense.”
A 3 by Young from the wing cut Marshall’s lead to nine, 23-14, and a baseline dunk by Jamie Smalligan closed the margin to five and ignited the West Virginia crowd.
“Jamie played his best game of the season by far,” said Young. “He really gave us a big boost off the bench with Rob getting into foul trouble. We really needed that out of him tonight and that’s been the story of this team the last couple of years: when somebody goes down or gets into foul trouble somebody else steps in.”
The Mountaineers closed out the first half with a perfectly executed play designed by Beilein. Two passes covered the length of the court and wound up in the hands of Wellington Smith on the baseline, where he put in an easy lay up to make it just a five-point game.
Asked after the game about the play at the end of the half, Young was reluctant to discuss it in depth.
“We might need it again,” he chuckled.
“Our problem in the first half was we didn’t attack,” Young added. “We always practice against pressure and we didn’t show how well we handle pressure in the first half. Coach came in at halftime and he was angry because he knew this wasn’t the team he’s been coaching since October.”
The play of Smalligan and Smith off the bench wound up being a wake up call for West Virginia, now 15-4. Seven straight points from Alexander pulled WVU to within three, 33-30, and the Mountaineers eventually tied it at 38 on a Nichols lay up.
Smalligan gave West Virginia its first lead off a pretty feed from Alexander in the paint. The Mountaineers built their lead to five, 51-46, and then to six, 54-48, on baskets by Young.
Marshall (7-12) cut the lead to seven on consecutive baskets by Dorris before a 9-0 West Virginia run from 3:50 to 2:39 put the game away.
The Mountaineers were 18 of 27 from the field in the second half and finished the game 26 of 48 for 54.2 percent. West Virginia was also accurate from the free throw line, connecting on 18 of 21 for 85.7 percent.
Young was 10 of 15 overall including 3 of 6 from 3-point distance.
“I can’t believe that number that I see – 25 points,” Beilein said. “The first half he made a couple of shots just so we were not shut out at halftime. He got a tap in; in the Cincinnati game he noticed himself watching a lot of rebounds and while he’s not a guy that bites the rim he has a knack for finding rebounds.”
Darris Nichols contributed 16 points, making 8 of 9 from the free throw line.
“In the second half we had to drive the ball and get guys on the sides to drive the ball and if they’re going to play us this aggressively at least we can get to the rim and get into the 1-and-1; we got into the two-shot penalty with 10 minutes to go,” Beilein said. “The kids played with confidence: it wasn’t about some great coaching lecture at halftime.”
Markel Humphrey scored 18 points and Dorris added 14 for Marshall. The Herd finished the game 27 of 64 from the floor for 42.1 percent. Marshall was 3 of 19 from 3-point range.
The victory snapped Marshall’s two-game winning streak against the Mountaineers; West Virginia is 25-10 overall in the series.
“We would have taken a one-point victory in triple overtime but winning by (14) was great,” said Smalligan, who collected a team-high nine rebounds. “We really wanted to win this game.”
“I’m very, very proud of them because we needed that type of adversity and then come back and win,” Beilein said.
“We learned about attacking pressure today,” Beilein said.
Young and Humphrey were named the Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic players of the game.
The Mountaineers resume Big East play on Sunday at the WVU Coliseum against DePaul in an important Big East game.
“I chose to practice tomorrow and I might change my decision on that only because we have another tough week next week with three in a row,” Beilein said. “We do need a little bit of rest.”
DePaul lost 66-52 at Georgetown Wednesday night and takes a 12-9 record into Morgantown. For ticket information, contact the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
Tip off is scheduled for 2 pm.
