Capital Classic Preview
January 13, 2009 03:44 PM | General
January 13, 2009
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Another year brings another Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic to Charleston.
Wednesday night West Virginia and Marshall will interrupt conference play one more time to meet on the hardwood. It will be the 18th time these two schools have met on an annual basis in the Capital City with the Mountaineers owning a 13-4 record. However, nine of the last 10 meetings have been decided by six points or less with two games going into overtime.
“We are trying to get into the NCAA Tournament and get a decent seed in the NCAA Tournament and every game counts for us,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “We need to win every game we can possibly win.”
Last year West Virginia had to hang on for a 66-64 victory after nearly blowing a 12-point second-half lead. The Mountaineers made just 11 of 28 from the free throw line and needed a Da’Sean Butler basket with 5.6 seconds left to avoid overtime.
This year’s game could be a repeat with the Thundering Herd coming off one of their better performances of the year last Saturday in Huntington.
Marshall (6-7) defeated East Carolina 72-64 with the Herd getting a game-high 24 points from Tyler Wilkerson and 14 points off the bench from Dago Pena.
Wilkerson, a 6-foot-8-inch, 240-pound junior forward, is averaging a team-best 11.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Wilkerson is shooting 55 percent and is averaging 17.5 points per game in Conference-USA action.
Freshman guard Damier Pitts shows averages of 10.9 points and 4.0 assists while averaging 29 minutes per game. Pitts has made 19 3s this year, one short of the team lead held by Chris Lutz who is presently mired in a 2 of 15 shooting slump.
Markel Humphrey (9.9 ppg.) and Lutz (9.1 ppg.) are averaging a shade under 10 points per game, as is 6-3 freshman guard Shaquille Johnson (9.5 ppg.) who comes off the bench.
Six-six sophomore Tirrell Baines shows averages of 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.
“I think their guard play is very good,” said Huggins. “Their guard play gets them a lot of shots. They are bigger than we are as well.”
West Virginia (11-4) is still smarting from a 75-53 loss at Marquette in a game that got out of hand late. The Mountaineers were leading 35-33 when Da’Sean Butler picked up his fourth foul. With Butler on the bench Marquette’s lead swelled to 13 points with 5:21 remaining.
Butler led West Virginia with 16 points – all in the first half. Guard Alex Ruoff added 13 although he finished the game making 4 of 12 from the floor. The Mountaineers shot just 36 percent overall and were out-rebounded by two despite Marquette employing a four-guard lineup.
“We have to rebound the ball,” Huggins said. “I think we have to get back to being a much better rebounding team. We need to get some easy baskets.”
Wednesday night’s game is the final time West Virginia steps outside of conference play.
Tip off is set for 8 pm. The contest will be televised on the Capital Classic Network. Stations in West Virginia carrying the telecast include WBOY (Clarksburg), WOWK (Charleston/Huntington), WVNS (Beckley), WTRF (Wheeling) and WJAL (Martinsburg).
Fans outside the viewing area can watch both the men’s and women’s games online on a pay-per-view basis for $11.95 through MSNsportsNET.com.
