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January 06, 2007 07:06 PM | General
January 6, 2007
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the first 20 minutes it looked like No. 25 West Virginia was headed for another down-to-the-wire game against St. John’s. That is before the Mountaineers went on a 15-2 run during a five-minute stretch in the second half to roll to a 73-46 victory over the Red Storm late Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Darris Nichols scored a career-high 20 points to lead West Virginia to a 73-46 victory over St. John's Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
West Virginia (13-1, 3-0) got 12 straight points during a five-minute stretch to turn a six-point lead into a 49-30 blowout.
“I expected what we had in the first half with it being a very tight game,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Then we got it to nine and then 11; made some great stops and hits some 3s.”
Joe Alexander and Darris Nichols knocked down jumpers and Alexander grabbed a loose ball at mid-court and sailed to the basket for a thunderous, one-handed tomahawk to give West Virginia an 11-point lead and force St. John’s coach Norm Roberts to call timeout.
After the timeout Nichols hit a jumper, Da’Sean Butler drilled a 3 and Alexander nailed another bomb to make it 49-30 and essentially put the game away with 12 minutes still to go. It was apparent to anyone watching the game that St John’s (10-5, 1-1) wasn’t going to score 50 against this WVU defense, ranked second in the country allowing just 52 points per game.
St. John’s shot just 35.7 percent from the floor including 4 of 16 from 3-point range for 25 percent. The Red Storm had 19 turnovers and were also wiped out on the boards 35-25 by a West Virginia team that is being out-rebounded by two in conference games.
“A lot of our turnovers against the 1-3-1 led to transition baskets and when you do that you’re going to be in trouble,” said St. John’s coach Norm Roberts.
Darris Nichols scored a career-high 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting after coming off 1 of 7 shooting performance in Wednesday’s win over Villanova.
Nichols was 4 of 5 from 3, handed out three assists and made two steals.
Frank Young went 5 of 11 overall and finished with 12 points. Alexander had 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds, but his most impressive play was a block of a Daryll Hill shot in the paint that the 6-8 forward grabbed the ball right out of the air and flipped it down to Nichols all in one motion for an easy lay up.
It was a play that would have been appreciated even on the New York City playgrounds.
“He’s terrific and he’s very, very active,” said Roberts of Alexander. “He’s long, he does all the little things; he can shoot and he’s so athletic that when you run out there on his shot he can shot-fake you and go around you. He gives them a lot of energy and he’s going to be a very, very good player.”
“Joe has probably spent as much time with me as anybody on our team just watching the particular things that we need to teach him and the things that are really exciting,” said Beilein. “We’re still trying to figure it all out and thank goodness we’ve still got 2 ½ years to really work with him.”
Rob Summers had 8 points, six rebounds and a pair of assists while Alex Ruoff handed out eight assists and had three steals.
“I don’t know what people sat on with last year’s team. Did they sit on (Kevin) Pittsnogle or (Mike) Gansey? Did they make Patrick drive it? It’s hard to sit on people with this team,” said Beilein. “Frank had a terrific month of December and January and he got us started, but most of those came in the first half.
“There is great balance there and having Darris shoot it the way he shot it and dishing the ball gives us a huge advantage,” said Beilein.
West Virginia recovered from a poor shooting first half to finish 29 of 59 for 49.2 percent. The Mountaineers were 13 of 31 from 3-point range for 41.9 percent.
“We defended fine in the first half but we didn’t do a very good job of defending in the second half,” Robert said. “I think a lot of that came from our offense giving up turnovers and easy baskets.”
Lamont Hamilton was the only St. John’s player to reach double figures scoring 15. The 6-10 senior made 6 of 9 shots and grabbed three rebounds.
West Virginia was just 5 of 7 from 2-point range against Villanova on Wednesday and finished Saturday’s game 16 of 28.
“That’s one stat that I’ve never looked at and I’ve got to start looking at that,” said Beilein.
West Virginia’s victory was its sixth in a row over St. John’s, although the last three meetings before today’s game were decided by just 10 points. St. John’s came into the game having won eight of its last nine games and one of its five losses this year was by just one to No. 19 Texas.
WVU now has four of its next five and six of its next eight on the road. The Mountaineers have played just one true road game this year, winning 85-54 at Duquesne back on Dec. 9.
