Off the Mark
January 30, 2008 09:26 PM | General
January 30, 2008
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Deonta Vaughn scored 18 points to lead Cincinnati to a 62-39 victory over West Virginia Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
However, the story of the game was West Virginia’s shooting, or lack thereof. The Mountaineers made just 10 of 50 field goal attempts (20 percent) including 1 of 22 from 3-point range. The only 3 West Virginia converted came midway through the second half by Darris Nichols, who finished 1 of 6 from behind the arc.
"I thought we were fine in shoot around," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They just beat us every way you can beat us."
Ailing forward Joe Alexander was 0 for 9 from the floor, Alex Ruoff was 1 for 7, Da’Sean Butler was 4 of 12 and Nichols finished 3 of 9. It was a performance that had West Virginia researchers digging deep into the record books.
It was the worst shooting night in school history, exceeding WVU’s 23.1 shooting effort in a 1951 game against Maryland that the Mountaineers actually won 39-36.
The only other time West Virginia failed to shoot at least 25 percent in a game came against UMass on Jan. 3, 1995, when the Mountaineers made 24.3 percent of their shot attempts in a 95-65 loss.
West Virginia’s 39 points were the fewest since scoring 38 in a 49-38 loss to Duquesne on Feb. 6, 1980. It was the first 20-point home loss for the Mountaineers since falling 73-53 to Boston College on Jan. 16, 2005.
"Who are we going to beat scoring 30 points?" said Huggins. "We've spent more time on offense and shooting the last three days then we have in a while."
It was also the first time since 2005 that West Virginia has lost back-to-back games at the Coliseum (losses to Boston College and Notre Dame).
Nichols was the only player to reach double figures for West Virginia scoring 17 points. The Mountaineers had nearly twice as many free throws made (18) as they did field goals (10).
Cincinnati (10-11, 5-4) had a 47-26 advantage on the glass led by Marcus Sikes’ game-high 12 rebounds. UC finished 9 of 20 from 3-point range.
"They just totally dominated us on the glass," Huggins said.
John Williamson contributed 11 for the Bearcats.
"They were more physical than we were, they were more aggressive than we were; it looked like men playing against boys," Huggins said.
The Mountaineers were coming off an emotional 58-57, last-second loss to Georgetown on Saturday night.
West Virginia (15-5, 4-4) now has a pair of road games coming up at Providence on Feb. 2 and then at Pitt on Feb. 7.
The Providence game will tip off at 7 pm and will be televised by ESPN Plus.
