Ebanks' 21 Leads West Virginia
February 17, 2010 10:23 PM | General
February 17, 2010
BOX SCORE
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| Devin Ebanks |
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Devin Ebanks scored 21 points and Wellington Smith has his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 8 West Virginia to an 88-74 victory over Providence Wednesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
West Virginia (20-5, 9-4) jumped out to a 25-4 lead and led the Friars 46-28 at halftime.
At the start of the second half Providence came out firing, getting back-to-back 3s by Jamine Petersen and Duke Mondy and two-point baskets by Mondy, Petersen and Vincent Council to reduce West Virginia’s lead to six, 48-42, four minutes into the second half.
“They made some shots and we handled the pressure like there was no pressure in the first half,” said Huggins. “Then we come out in the second half and we’re very nonchalant with the ball. They’re going to make some shots. When you shoot as many 3s as they do you’re going to make some shots.”
West Virginia was able to answer with a nine-point run to push the lead back out to 15, 57-42.
Late in the game with the Friars still trailing by double digits, Providence chose to send West Virginia to the free throw line where the Mountaineers struggled in recent losses to Villanova and Pitt.
Tonight West Virginia was flawless, going 12 of 12 from the line over the remaining 2:12 of the game.
“We’re trying to work on managing clock and we’re trying to work on when we get people down let’s put them away,” said Huggins.
Butler scored 16 points and Truck Bryant added 14 on 10 of 10 shooting from the line.
“When we ran offense I thought we were pretty good,” said Huggins. “For whatever reason we shot some 3s that we didn’t need to shoot. Thank God we didn’t need them today because we were 2 for 12.”
The Mountaineers shot 48.4% from the floor for the game and owned the glass against the Friars with a 43-28 advantage. Providence came into the game leading the Big East with an average of 17 offensive rebounds per game but was only able to grab 10 offensive boards against the Mountaineers.
“I thought Wells was good today,” said Huggins. “I think that was the first double-double of his career. I thought he really rebounded the ball offensively.”
Jamine Peterson led Providence, now 12-14, 4-10, with 20 points.
West Virginia, which has won five straight against Providence and seven of the last nine, picked up its fifth Big East road victory, the most conference road wins for the Mountaineers since 1997.
Huggins became just the second coach in school history to win 20 games in each of his first three seasons coaching the Mountaineers. George King had records of 23-4, 24-6 and 23-8 during his first three years leading West Virginia from 1961-63.
The victory moves West Virginia ½ game ahead of Pitt in the Big East standings and two games behind conference leaders Syracuse and Villanova in the loss column.
“We need to get on a roll. That’s what I keep telling our guys,” said Huggins. “We could be on a pretty good roll if we would have taken care of business but we didn’t so now we’ve got to get on a roll here.”
West Virginia returns to the Coliseum to face Seton Hall in a Saturday noon game that will be televised on ESPN. Seton Hall defeated St. John’s 59-50 earlier tonight to improve to 15-9, 6-7.
