WVU Advances to Quarterfinals
March 16, 2007 12:25 AM | General
March 15, 2007
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Frank Young isn’t quite ready to retire his jersey just yet. The senior forward extended his career at least one more game by scoring a career-high 31 points to lead West Virginia to a 90-77 victory over Massachusetts Thursday night at the WVU Coliseum in an NIT second-round game.
 |
||
| Frank Young scores two of his career-high 31 points Thursday night against UMass. West Virginia won the game 90-77.
All-Pro Photography/Allison Toffle |
Young, who had 18 points in the first half, made 11 of 15 shots including 6 of 8 from 3-point range. Young tied Chris Leonard’s 15-year school record with his 101st 3.
“Frank just had a tremendous game and he’s been such a leader for us,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “He won’t let people quit. He won’t let people fuss at each other. He’s really been the typical young man that we like to recruit that just hangs in there and when he gets to be a senior he has a heck of a year.”
West Virginia and UMass played an entertaining game for the 7,146 that showed up on just two day's notice. The two teams combined to score 167 points and both shot better than 50 percent. In fact, in the second half the two teams combined to shoot a sizzling 66.1 percent (37 of 56).
“With one day turnaround I expected a high scoring game because it’s just very difficult to sit on things with both coaches trying to get their kids rest,” Beilein said.
Massachusetts was an incredible 21 of 30 in the second half for 70 percent; the Minutemen were 4 of 5 from 3-point distance.
“This is my first time here and this is a great basketball place,” said UMass coach Travis Ford. “They have great basketball, good fans, and an incredible coach.”
The Mountaineers were nearly as lethal from the floor, hitting 16 of 26 for 61.5 percent in the second half including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. The only negative for WVU was UMass pressuring the Mountaineers into 13 turnovers.
“They’re known for their pressing and trapping and they didn’t do it as much in the first half. In the second half they just came after us,” Beilein said. “Usually we’re pretty good at handling it when people do press us but we had some uncharacteristic turnovers. Just when I think we play like veterans we show some inexperience. I’ve just got to do a better job of teaching poise out there.”
The difference in the game came during a five-minute stretch in the first half when West Virginia used a 13-4 run to turn a one-point lead into a 26-16 advantage following a 3 by Young with 5:35 remaining.
Another 5-0 run right at the end of the half gave West Virginia a 37-23 halftime advantage.
“In the first half UMass was 1 for 10 (from 3-point range). Well, in the second half (James Life) just shot them right back into the game,” Beilein said. “He was 4 for 5 in the second half and he was absolutely terrific and he made a lot of tough shots. He was hard for us to defend and it was also hard to defend their inside game.”
The Mountaineers led by as many as 19 points with 16:48 remaining before UMass made a run – mainly behind the 3-point shooting of Life who finished with 20 points. A jumper by Life with 12 minutes to go pulled the Minutemen to within six, 54-48, and a pair of Chris Lowe free throws with 11:24 remaining reduced the UMass deficit to four, 56-52.
The Minutemen got it to four again with 4:55 left when Life made a driving lay up, but Da’Sean Butler answered on the other end with a pull up jumper in the lane. A pair of Young free throws at the 3:52 mark got West Virginia’s lead back to eight, 78-70.
Young then hit the dagger with 2:06 remaining from the wing for his sixth 3 of the game, giving West Virginia an 85-73 lead.
Darris Nichols scored 14 points and handed out six assists for West Virginia. Butler came off the bench to score 10.
“West Virginia has a great system,” Ford said. “They picked great players for the system. That’s the key. You can run any system in the world but you have to have the right players. They have the right players for the system.”
Gary Forbes scored 15 and Stephane Lasme added 14 points and 14 rebounds for Massachusetts, which finished the season 24-9.
“They’ve got such a great post-up team, getting penetration and offensive rebounds … I’m just happy to get a win. I think we just beat a whale of a team,” Beilein said.
West Virginia, 24-9, will face the winner of the North Carolina State-Marist game on Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum at either 7 or 9 pm in the NIT quarterfinals.
The Mountaineers’ 24 victories match the 2005 team as the most by a John Beilein-coached team and are the most since the 1988-89 team had 26.
WVU has now won 12 straight home games against non-conference teams and is 31-2 against non-Big East teams under Beilein at the Coliseum.
