Mountaineers to Face Bearcats
March 11, 2010 11:31 AM | General
March 11, 2010
NEW YORK – Third-seeded West Virginia will face 11th-seeded Cincinnati in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Bearcats (18-14) were surprising 69-66 winners over Louisville last night in a game the Cardinals seemingly had in hand early in the second half with them leading 44-34.
But Cincinnati stormed back to tie the game at 47 and eventually won the game by pounding the glass. The Bearcats out-rebounded Louisville 46-29 with 16 points and five rebounds from 6-foot-9, 260-pound center Yancy Gates and 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench from forward Darnell Wilks.
Cincinnati advanced to yesterday’s second round by outlasting Rutgers 69-68 on Lance Stephenson free throws.
West Virginia and Cincinnati met late last month in Morgantown, where the Mountaineers were able to pull out a 74-68 victory – Bob Huggins’ first against his former team.
The Bearcats led that game by 10 early in the second half before going cold from the field, missing 10 straight shots during a key stretch that enabled West Virginia to come back – one of several times the Mountaineers have had to overcome slow starts this year.
“We don’t seem to panic,” said Huggins.
West Virginia was able to keep Gates off the glass without a rebound and the Mountaineers had a 41-30 advantage on the boards. Kevin Jones led four double figure scorers with 15 points against the Bearcats.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 and hit 3 of 6 from 3-point range for Cincinnati.
West Virginia’s entire starting five is from the New York City metropolitan area: Devin Ebanks and Truck Bryant growing up in the city with Kevin Jones, Wellington Smith and Da’Sean Butler hailing from the suburbs.
“I think everybody is excited to play in Madison Square Garden, no matter where you are from,” said Huggins. “Some of our New York guys have played well in the Garden and some of them didn’t. We’ve played pretty well there the past couple of years and we didn’t have that many New York guys the first year.”
West Virginia (24-6) last played on Saturday at Villanova while Cincinnati will be playing its third game in three days. Huggins said before leaving for New York that bench play and team depth can sometimes be overemphasized in tournament play.
“Syracuse didn’t play that many people a year ago and played a six-overtime game and an overtime game and got to the finals,” said Huggins. “I think style of play has something to do with it. How much energy do you expend? There are a lot of factors. How you play? Who you play? Who’s playing well at the time? Do you make open shots? Do you struggle to score?”
The Mountaineers had to spend time studying Rutgers, Cincinnati and Louisville in the days leading up to tonight’s game.
“You would hope by this time of year, unless somebody throws something at you that you’ve haven’t seen, you’re able to adapt,” said Huggins. “Let’s face the facts, it’s basically going to come down to they’re going to try and pound it inside on you or they’re going to set a lot of ball screens. We’ve guarded ball screens and we’ve guarded people bigger than us all year.”
West Virginia has already locked up a spot in the NCAA tournament and is one of a handful of teams still in contention for a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.
Cincinnati, meanwhile, has a lot of work left to do to get into the discussion for an NCAA tournament at-large bid. According to RealTimeRPI.com, Cincinnati is 63rd in its most recent rankings and will probably need to reach the Big East tournament championship game for a realistic shot at making the NCAA tournament.
The Bearcats will have added incentive by going up against their former coach with the opportunity to knock off a Top 10 team. Huggins says his players realize that.
“They have been the hunted and that’s been different for them,” Huggins said of his team. “They have always been the hunter and everybody is always going to bring their A-game. Again, if we’re going to keep this program where we’d all like to keep it that is going to happen. In some instances, it probably helps you because you handle the emotion a little bit better.”
West Virginia has won eight of its last 13 Big East tournament games and has reached the tournament semifinals three times in the last five years.
Tipoff is set for approximately 9 p.m. following the conclusion of the 7 p.m. Pitt-Notre Dame game. The afternoon session features Syracuse and Georgetown at noon followed by Marquette and Villanova at 2 p.m.
ESPN will televise all four quarterfinal games.
