Men's Basketball: WVU to Take on Long Beach
November 25, 2009 04:48 PM | General
November 25, 2009
GAME NOTES
 |
||
| John Flowers |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With a bus ride to Cincinnati and a cross-country flight to Anaheim out of the way, West Virginia will now try to overcome jet lag and a short turnaround to face Long Beach State on Thanksgiving Day in the opening game of the 76 Classic at the Anaheim Convention Center.
West Virginia boosted its record to 2-0 with a 69-50 victory over The Citadel on Tuesday night in Charleston.
Forward John Flowers came off the bench to lead the Mountaineers with 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting. After falling behind early 3-2, West Virginia never trailed the remainder of the game, leading by 16 points in the first half and as many as 21 late in the second half.
Kevin Jones added 11 points and eight rebounds while guard Truck Bryant and Casey Mitchell scored 10 points each. WVU coach Bob Huggins was unhappy with the way his team shot and rebounded against the Bulldogs Tuesday night.
West Virginia shot 46 percent overall and tied The Citadel on the glass with 30 rebounds.
“We had a lot of open looks and we didn’t make them,” said Huggins after Tuesday night’s game.
The Mountaineers are expecting a much stiffer challenge from Long Beach State Thursday afternoon in a game that will be played at 11 a.m. Pacific time to accommodate a 2 p.m. Eastern tip time.
Long Beach State boosted its record to 3-1 after last Saturday’s 81-69 victory over Green Bay. Coach Dan Monson’s 49ers also show wins over Pepperdine and Alaska-Anchorage.
Long Beach State’s only loss was an 82-62 decision to Notre Dame.
Six-five sophomore guard Larry Anderson leads four double-figure scorers by averaging 18.8 points per game. Six-eight sophomore forward T.J. Robinson shows averages of 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Last year, Monson was 15-15 in his second year at Long Beach State.
West Virginia has four double-digit scorers in its lineup led by senior forward Da’Sean Butler’s 17.5 points per game. Butler scored 26 in the season opener against Loyola but managed just 9 on 4 of 11 shooting Tuesday night in Charleston.
Joe Mazzulla, who missed most of last year after having season-ending shoulder surgery following the Davidson game, made his return against The Citadel. Mazzulla played 15 minutes, scoring a basket and handing out six assists.
Devin Ebanks, who missed West Virginia’s season opener against Loyola for personal reasons, was on the bench for Tuesday night’s game against The Citadel although he didn’t see action. Ebanks is with the team in California.
West Virginia will work out later today and then will attend a tournament banquet at Disney this evening.
The winner of Thursday’s West Virginia-Long Beach State game will face the winner of Texas A&M-Clemson on Friday at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The two losers will play at 5 p.m. on ESPNU.
The tournament concludes on Sunday, Nov. 29.
MSN’s radio coverage for Thursday’s game will begin at 1:30 p.m. with Coliseum Countdown. Sirius Satellite radio listeners can get the MSN broadcast on channel 127; XM users can listen to the broadcast on channel 203.
