Flowers' 24 Lifts WVU
January 13, 2011 09:51 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – John Flowers scored a career-high 24 points and Kevin Jones contributed 19-point 13-rebound double-double to lead West Virginia to a 93-63 victory over Providence Thursday night at the WVU Coliseum.
This one was over 12 minutes into the game, the Mountaineers building a 32-12 lead with 8:08 remaining in the first half after a Truck Bryant free throw.
“This was fun,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
West Virginia (11-4, 3-2) had a 26-point lead at halftime and led by as many as 37 twice in the second half at 81-44 and 83-46. Huggins was able to get quality minutes from his bench with nine different players getting 10 minutes or more tonight.
Sophomore Danny Jennings got the starting nod at center and finished with 4 points in 12 minutes while sophomore Deniz Kilicli came off the bench to produce 14 points and grab six rebounds in 18 minutes; Casey Mitchell contributed 14 and Bryant added 12.
“I thought our execution was pretty good and at the start of the game we advanced it down (against Providence’s pressure) and Casey makes a couple of 3s and that tends to take the pressure off a little bit and they start running back a little bit,” said Huggins. “This was the first game that we got out and ran in transition.”
West Virginia’s 93 points were the most it has scored since putting 95 on the board against Oakland in the season opener back on Nov. 12.
“We have pounded on them about passing the basketball; we’re a good team when we pass the basketball and we’re not a very good team when we don’t pass the basketball,” said Huggins of his team’s 22 assists on 35 field goals. “I thought we passed it much better today.”
Flowers played one of his best all-around games, scoring 24, grabbing six rebounds, blocking five shots and making three steals. He also drew the assignment of guarding Providence’s Marshon Brooks, who came into tonight averaging 24.5 points per game. That average took a hit after Flowers held him to just 13 points on 5 of 15 shooting. It snapped an 11-game streak of Brooks scoring at least 20 points, and it was his second-lowest scoring output of the season.
“John was outstanding at both ends of the floor,” said Huggins. “Brooks is really, really good and he goes 5 for 15. John Flowers was as good as he’s been in his career here and he was as good as a lot of people here today.”
Providence (11-7, 0-5), averaging 79.2 points per game, finished 16 below that while shooting just 31.2% from the floor overall and 27.8% from 3. The Friars made only seven first half field goals and scored 20 points.
West Virginia blocked nine shots and made 10 steals for the game.
“We played against a team that probably pump fakes as well as anybody in the league so we stayed down when we needed to stay down and we blocked shots off the ball,” said Huggins.
Providence is now 1-9 all-time at the Coliseum with its only victory coming in 1999. West Virginia has won 11 out of the last 12 against the Friars.
“We had two things ready to go against their 1-3-1 and we had two things ready to go against their 2-2 matchup, and then we were going to run some specials when they started chasing Casey,” said Huggins.
The Mountaineers have a big non-conference game coming up on Sunday when eighth-ranked Purdue comes to the Coliseum. The Boilermakers (15-2) dropped their second game of the season earlier tonight at 25th-ranked Minnesota, 70-67.
Purdue hammered West Virginia 77-62 in West Lafayette last year. Sunday’s game has already been announced a sellout and will tip off at 1:30 p.m. CBS will televise the contest nationally.
“If we’re going to be somebody then let’s be somebody – let’s show up,” said Huggins. “It was noon last year and it was so cold, so snowy, and so ugly in West Lafayette. All of our guys from Da’Sean (Butler) on down said it was the greatest crowd … the most enthusiastic and the most intimidating crowd that they ever played against.
“They never sat down and they were beating the hell out of us and they still never sat down,” Huggins added.
This one was over 12 minutes into the game, the Mountaineers building a 32-12 lead with 8:08 remaining in the first half after a Truck Bryant free throw.
“This was fun,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
West Virginia (11-4, 3-2) had a 26-point lead at halftime and led by as many as 37 twice in the second half at 81-44 and 83-46. Huggins was able to get quality minutes from his bench with nine different players getting 10 minutes or more tonight.
Sophomore Danny Jennings got the starting nod at center and finished with 4 points in 12 minutes while sophomore Deniz Kilicli came off the bench to produce 14 points and grab six rebounds in 18 minutes; Casey Mitchell contributed 14 and Bryant added 12.
“I thought our execution was pretty good and at the start of the game we advanced it down (against Providence’s pressure) and Casey makes a couple of 3s and that tends to take the pressure off a little bit and they start running back a little bit,” said Huggins. “This was the first game that we got out and ran in transition.”
West Virginia’s 93 points were the most it has scored since putting 95 on the board against Oakland in the season opener back on Nov. 12.
“We have pounded on them about passing the basketball; we’re a good team when we pass the basketball and we’re not a very good team when we don’t pass the basketball,” said Huggins of his team’s 22 assists on 35 field goals. “I thought we passed it much better today.”
Flowers played one of his best all-around games, scoring 24, grabbing six rebounds, blocking five shots and making three steals. He also drew the assignment of guarding Providence’s Marshon Brooks, who came into tonight averaging 24.5 points per game. That average took a hit after Flowers held him to just 13 points on 5 of 15 shooting. It snapped an 11-game streak of Brooks scoring at least 20 points, and it was his second-lowest scoring output of the season.
“John was outstanding at both ends of the floor,” said Huggins. “Brooks is really, really good and he goes 5 for 15. John Flowers was as good as he’s been in his career here and he was as good as a lot of people here today.”
Providence (11-7, 0-5), averaging 79.2 points per game, finished 16 below that while shooting just 31.2% from the floor overall and 27.8% from 3. The Friars made only seven first half field goals and scored 20 points.
West Virginia blocked nine shots and made 10 steals for the game.
“We played against a team that probably pump fakes as well as anybody in the league so we stayed down when we needed to stay down and we blocked shots off the ball,” said Huggins.
Providence is now 1-9 all-time at the Coliseum with its only victory coming in 1999. West Virginia has won 11 out of the last 12 against the Friars.
“We had two things ready to go against their 1-3-1 and we had two things ready to go against their 2-2 matchup, and then we were going to run some specials when they started chasing Casey,” said Huggins.
The Mountaineers have a big non-conference game coming up on Sunday when eighth-ranked Purdue comes to the Coliseum. The Boilermakers (15-2) dropped their second game of the season earlier tonight at 25th-ranked Minnesota, 70-67.
Purdue hammered West Virginia 77-62 in West Lafayette last year. Sunday’s game has already been announced a sellout and will tip off at 1:30 p.m. CBS will televise the contest nationally.
“If we’re going to be somebody then let’s be somebody – let’s show up,” said Huggins. “It was noon last year and it was so cold, so snowy, and so ugly in West Lafayette. All of our guys from Da’Sean (Butler) on down said it was the greatest crowd … the most enthusiastic and the most intimidating crowd that they ever played against.
“They never sat down and they were beating the hell out of us and they still never sat down,” Huggins added.
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