Deconstructing Duke
March 22, 2008 04:57 PM | General
March 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s on to the Sweet 16 once again for West Virginia. The No. 7-seeded Mountaineers knocked off No. 2 seed and No. 9-rated Duke 73-67 Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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| Joe Alexander scored a game-high 22 points to lead West Virginia to a 76-67 victory over the Blue Devils Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The Mountaineers (26-10) got terrific performances off the bench from guard Joe Mazzulla and seldom-used forward Cam Thoroughman to overcome a 34-29 halftime deficit.
West Virginia outscored the Blue Devils 44-33 in the second half behind the tough play of Mazzulla at guard and Thoroughman playing in place of forwards Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith, both forced to the bench with four fouls.
Thoroughman scored a pair of baskets during a four-minute stretch and grabbed a pair of crucial offensive rebounds with the Mountaineers leading 60-50. Thoroughman’s second bucket put West Virginia up 11, 62-51, with 3:11 remaining.
West Virginia’s biggest lead was 13 points at 68-55.
Duke (28-6) couldn’t guard West Virginia forward Joe Alexander, who finished with a game-high 22 points while also grabbing 11 rebounds. Alexander took 22 shots, making seven, while also converting 7 of 8 from the free throw line.
Mazzulla nearly had a triple-double, scoring 13 points to go with a career-high 11 rebounds and eight assists.
The Mountaineers destroyed Duke on the glass, getting a 47-27 advantage including grabbing 19 offensive rebounds.
Alex Ruoff scored 17 points to follow up his 21-point effort on Thursday against Arizona and nailed a huge falling 3-point basket from the corner with the shot clock at two to tie the game at 37.
In the first half Duke was the beneficiary of a favorable whistle, scoring 12 of its 34 first-half points at the free throw line on 12 of 12 shooting. Included among those free throws was a pair by Jon Scheyer after Huggins was assessed a technical foul by official Ed Hightower during a timeout.
The technical call was right in the middle of a Blue Devil 14-0 run that pushed their lead out to 10, 14-4. Duke also led 18-8 after a pair Kyle Singler free throws before the Mountaineers began chipping away at the lead.
Alexander got a three-point play after being fouled on the block by Lance Thomas and Alexander added another basket to make it 18-15, Duke.
Duke got the lead back to seven twice at 24-17 on a Taylor King jumper and then at 28-21 on an inside move by Thomas.
Leading 34-27 with the ball, Duke had two chances to go up 10 but 3-point field goal tries by Scheyer and Paulus were off target. The Paulus miss led to a West Virginia breakout that resulted in a pair of free throws by Da’Sean Butler.
Butler could have cut the Blue Devil lead to two, but his 3-point try with 2.8 seconds left glanced off the front of the rim.
Henderson led the Blue Devils with 18 points. Scheyer contributed 15 and Paulus added 13.
Duke missed 13 straight 3s at one point in the second half and finished 5 of 22 from behind the arc for the game.
As irony would have it, the last time West Virginia lost to Duke in the 1989 NCAA Tournament in Greensboro, the Mountaineers were a seven seed and Duke was a No. 2 seed.
West Virginia faces the winner of Purdue-Xavier in Phoenix on Thursday, March 27. It is WVU's fourth trip to the Sweet 16 since 1998 and the third since 2005.
