WVU Outlasts Davidson
November 18, 2010 02:59 PM | General
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – Truck Bryant scored 22 points to lead West Virginia to an 84-70 victory over Davidson early Thursday afternoon in the opening game of the Honda Puerto Rico Tip-Off played at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Bryant’s 22 points matched his career high scored against Marshall on Jan. 14, 2009.
The Mountaineers (2-0) led by double digits for most of the game, but it was far from being a clean performance. West Virginia missed 16 free throws and had only a one-rebound advantage over the much smaller Wildcats. Davidson finished the game with 37 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive glass.
"It's a concern," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins of his team's rebounding difficulties. The Mountaineers are plus-one in rebounding through two games this season. "Part of it is we don't run offense the way we ran offense before - we don't give ourselves a chance to rebound.
"And this is the story: when you miss 18 free throws, that's 18 rebounds the other team get. So this is a little distorted because of our ineptitude at the foul line."
There were 67 total fouls called on both teams and Davidson couldn’t shoot from behind the 3-point arc, missing its first 19 attempts (several uncontested) before Jordan Downing finally converted one with 3:21 remaining in the game and West Virginia leading by 13. Davidson finished the game 2 of 22 from behind the arc.
Davidson also struggled from the free throw line by missing 11 of its 29 attempts. The two teams tried a combined 78 free throw attempts and seven different players fouled out – Davidson had four including starters JP Kuhlman and Tom Droney.
West Virginia shot a better percentage from 3 (43.8%) than it did overall (43.4%), while Davidson finished the game 25 of 61 from the floor for 41 percent. The Wildcats had 16 turnovers to West Virginia’s 14.
"The number of foul shots that were taken indicates that the rhythm was not there for either team," said Davidson coach Bob McKillop.
Trailing 6-5 early in the game, West Virginia got back-to-back baskets from Bryant and then he assisted on Jonnie West’s 3 to make it a 12-6 game.
The Mountaineers got their lead to 10, 26-16, on a John Flowers 3, and they eventually expanded it to 18 on a Bryant basket with 4:12 left in the first half.
After Davidson reduced West Virginia’s lead to 13 at halftime, West Virginia once again built it back up to 17 points on inside baskets by Kevin Jones and Danny Jennings, who played 22 minutes coming off the bench when starter Deniz Kilicli got into early foul trouble and eventually fouled out without scoring. Jennings led all rebounders with 10.
WVU maintained a 12 to 15-point lead for the rest of the game.
Casey Mitchell scored 12 points, hitting two 3s, and Flowers added 11 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with more than nine minutes left. Jones and Dalton Pepper contributed 10 points each.
"We should be a lot better," said Huggins. "We're not playing a bunch of freshmen. The 10 guys that we played all were here a year ago and the majority of them played in virtually every game."
Brendan McKillop and De’Mon Brooks scored 15 points each to lead Davidson, now 0-2 for the year.
"I thought our guys fought from the opening tip till the end of the game, and that's a step up for us since our first game," said McKillop.
West Virginia will face Vanderbilt Friday at 12:30 p.m. That game will be televised nationally by ESPNU.
Bryant’s 22 points matched his career high scored against Marshall on Jan. 14, 2009.
The Mountaineers (2-0) led by double digits for most of the game, but it was far from being a clean performance. West Virginia missed 16 free throws and had only a one-rebound advantage over the much smaller Wildcats. Davidson finished the game with 37 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive glass.
"It's a concern," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins of his team's rebounding difficulties. The Mountaineers are plus-one in rebounding through two games this season. "Part of it is we don't run offense the way we ran offense before - we don't give ourselves a chance to rebound.
"And this is the story: when you miss 18 free throws, that's 18 rebounds the other team get. So this is a little distorted because of our ineptitude at the foul line."
There were 67 total fouls called on both teams and Davidson couldn’t shoot from behind the 3-point arc, missing its first 19 attempts (several uncontested) before Jordan Downing finally converted one with 3:21 remaining in the game and West Virginia leading by 13. Davidson finished the game 2 of 22 from behind the arc.
Davidson also struggled from the free throw line by missing 11 of its 29 attempts. The two teams tried a combined 78 free throw attempts and seven different players fouled out – Davidson had four including starters JP Kuhlman and Tom Droney.
West Virginia shot a better percentage from 3 (43.8%) than it did overall (43.4%), while Davidson finished the game 25 of 61 from the floor for 41 percent. The Wildcats had 16 turnovers to West Virginia’s 14.
"The number of foul shots that were taken indicates that the rhythm was not there for either team," said Davidson coach Bob McKillop.
Trailing 6-5 early in the game, West Virginia got back-to-back baskets from Bryant and then he assisted on Jonnie West’s 3 to make it a 12-6 game.
The Mountaineers got their lead to 10, 26-16, on a John Flowers 3, and they eventually expanded it to 18 on a Bryant basket with 4:12 left in the first half.
After Davidson reduced West Virginia’s lead to 13 at halftime, West Virginia once again built it back up to 17 points on inside baskets by Kevin Jones and Danny Jennings, who played 22 minutes coming off the bench when starter Deniz Kilicli got into early foul trouble and eventually fouled out without scoring. Jennings led all rebounders with 10.
WVU maintained a 12 to 15-point lead for the rest of the game.
Casey Mitchell scored 12 points, hitting two 3s, and Flowers added 11 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with more than nine minutes left. Jones and Dalton Pepper contributed 10 points each.
"We should be a lot better," said Huggins. "We're not playing a bunch of freshmen. The 10 guys that we played all were here a year ago and the majority of them played in virtually every game."
Brendan McKillop and De’Mon Brooks scored 15 points each to lead Davidson, now 0-2 for the year.
"I thought our guys fought from the opening tip till the end of the game, and that's a step up for us since our first game," said McKillop.
West Virginia will face Vanderbilt Friday at 12:30 p.m. That game will be televised nationally by ESPNU.
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