Off the Mark
February 20, 2007 10:09 PM | General
February 20, 2007
BOX SCORE
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Weyinmi Efejuku scored 24 points and Herbert Hill added 12 to lead Providence to a 64-61 victory over No. 22 West Virginia Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, R.I.
 |
||
| Providence College's Jonathan Kale (34) tries to draw the offensive foul against the drive of West Virginia's Joe Alexander, as Geoffrey McDermott (11) watches, left, in the second half of their basketball game in Providence, R.I. Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007. The foul was called against Kale. Providence beat West Virginia, 64-61.
AP photo/Elise Amendola |
Providence (17-9, 7-6) keeps its NCAA tournament hopes alive by beating the Mountaineers, and the Friars have another opportunity to add to their resume this weekend with a home game against Syracuse.
“Give Providence credit because they hung in there,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “I don’t think they played their best game, either, but it was a tough one to lose because we’re better than we played.”
West Virginia (20-7, 8-6) led by as many as nine early in the second half and had a 39-32 advantage before Providence went on a 9-0 run to take a 41-39 lead after a Jonathan Kale transition basket.
Six of Providence’s points during the 9-0 run came either on stick-backs or out-fighting West Virginia for loose balls.
“Defensively we made some mistakes that haunted us a little bit and we have to address that,” Beilein said.
A Da’Sean Butler lay up with 7:20 to go gave West Virginia a 46-45 lead, but Providence answered with a pair of 3s by Efejuku and Geoff McDermott to make it 51-46.
West Virginia’s Rob Summers had a chance to tie the game at 54 with 4:04 remaining when he scored inside and was fouled by McDermott. But he couldn’t finish the three-point play, missing the free throw.
Efejuku wound up getting a pair of foul shots at the other end and the Friars took a six-point, 62-56 lead on a pretty alley oop pass from Sharaud Curry to Hill.
Joe Alexander was able to make it a one possession game with 40.6 seconds left on a successful drive to the basket where he was fouled by Kale. Alexander hit the free throw to pull the Mountaineers to within three, 62-59.
With 17 seconds left, Efejuku gave West Virginia a window of opportunity when he missed a front end of a one-and-one and Da’Sean Butler was fouled a mid-court racing down the floor to try and get off a game-tying shot.
Butler made both free throws with 9.1 seconds left to make it 62-61, Providence.
West Virginia was unable to foul on the inbounds, and Providence worked the ball down the floor to a wide-open Hill for an easy dunk with two seconds remaining.
Darris Nichols’ desperation heave from half court to tie the game went wide of the basket.
“When you shoot as poorly as we did and you’re still in position to win it … we just made some tough decisions that I’m sure we’ll learn from,” Beilein said.
West Virginia had success when it chose to work the ball inside against Providence’s 2-3 zone, but for the most part the Mountaineers elected to stay outside and shoot 3s. West Virginia finished the game 9 of 41 from behind the 3-point arc, including 4 of 26 in the second half.
Providence shot 58 percent in the second half (14 of 24) and finished the game 23 of 54 for 43 percent overall.
Nichols and Young had 14 points each for the Mountaineers. Joe Alexander scored 11.
The Mountaineers led 30-25 at halftime.
“We were never in control of the game but we had chances,” Beilein said. “We just had to turn around and guard them a little bit better and we gave them some easy ones that we shouldn’t have given them.”
The Mountaineers now have a week off before traveling to No. 8 Pittsburgh next Tuesday night. WVU wraps up the regular season with a home game against Cincinnati on Saturday, March 3, at the WVU Coliseum.
