Orange Crushed
January 13, 2008 05:28 PM | General
January 13, 2008
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The last time Syracuse came to the Coliseum in 2004 Hakim Warrick was dunking on West Virginia and his Orange teammates were putting Spaulding marks on the foreheads of the Mountaineers. Well that’s certainly changed.
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| Alex Ruoff makes one of his seven 3-point baskets against Syracuse Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. Ruoff finished with a game-high 23 points in West Virginia's 81-61 victory.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
It was West Virginia running and dunking on Syracuse and putting shots back in the faces of the Orange in an 81-61 runaway victory Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
“Any win is a good win in this league and we need to kind of get on a little roll here and start shooting the ball, playing a little better and playing with a little bit more confidence,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
The play of the game came midway through the first half when John Flowers came from behind and blocked Rick Jackson’s tomahawk stuff attempt. The play ignited the crowd and West Virginia responded by going on a 19-9 run to build its lead to 12, 30-18.
“I think John Flowers made the play that really got the game going in the right direction when he makes the great block from behind,” Huggins said. “It was a big-time hustle play. We get the ball back and it gets the crowd in the game and kind of gets us going.”
Flowers also got a stick-back basket just ahead of the halftime buzzer to help the Mountaineers to a 35-20 halftime lead.
“John is getting betting and better,” Huggins said.
Syracuse, playing without Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins who are both recovering from season-ending knee injuries, couldn’t afford to extend its defense because of its lack of depth and doesn’t have the outside shooters right now to erase large deficits.
Consequently, the Mountaineers led by as many as 26 points with 5:30 remaining in the game following Alex Ruoff’s seventh 3-pointer of the game.
Ruoff scored a game-high 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting. The 6-6 guard made 7 of 11 from behind the arc and now shows 58 3s for the season.
“I thought Alex really gave us a boost today,” Huggins said. “He made some big shots.”
Darris Nichols also found his shooting touch, going 7 of 10 overall and scoring 17 points to go with six assists.
Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler contributed 13 points, while the tag-team combo forward combo of Wellington Smith and John Flowers combined for 7 points and nine rebounds off the bench. The Mountaineers blocked seven Syracuse shots and held their own on the glass, grabbing 33 boards to Syracuse’s 36.
West Virginia was 9 of 24 from 3-point distance.
“I think (Syracuse) came out and played man-to-man to get some energy going and tried to get their guys a little more active at the start of the game,” Huggins said. “But I thought we showed real good patience. We talked about it for two days: let’s have patience and get what we want to get.”
Arinze Onuaku led Syracuse with 15 points. Paul Harris added 12 points and eight rebounds and Johnny Flynn scored 11.
Big East rookie of the year candidate Donte Greene had 10 points and 10 rebounds, but made just 3 of 12 shots.
“We wanted to keep Joe on Greene as much as we could so he didn’t get going because what he does is he shoots over guys because he’s so long and I thought he would have a hard time shooting the ball over Joe,” Huggins said. “Joe really took it upon himself as a challenge to be able to step out and guard him.”
Syracuse (12-5, 2-2), which came into the game leading the Big East in scoring averaging 84.7 points per game, scored a season-low 61 points. The Orange shot just 41.5 percent for the game and committed 19 turnovers.
“We’re trying to figure who to match up with and when you have a 270-pound guy in there (Onuaku) who scores with the ball down in there it’s a hard match up for John, Da’Sean or Wellington and Joe for that matter,” Huggins said.
The West Virginia victory snaps an eight-game losing streak to Syracuse dating back to 2001.
WVU, now 12-4, 2-2, returns to action on Thursday night facing St. John’s in a Big East game at the WVU Coliseum. The Fiesta Bowl champion football team will be honored at halftime of that contest. Tip off is schedule for 7 p.m.
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