Siva's Shot Lifts Louisville
January 26, 2011 10:08 PM | General
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Peyton Siva’s driving layup high off the glass with four seconds left lifted 19th-ranked Louisville to a 55-54 victory over West Virginia Wednesday night at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
West Virginia, using only seven players tonight with the suspension of leading scorer Casey Mitchell and the departure of sophomore forward Danny Jennings, had plenty of opportunities to win this one.
The Mountaineers led by 11, 42-31, with 15:10 left in the second half when the lid went on the basket. West Virginia’s next point came with 6:50 remaining (a Kevin Jones free throw) and its next basket came with 1:29 to go (a Dalton Pepper 3 from the corner).
Despite that, West Virginia was still in great shape to win the basketball game.
Pepper’s 3 pulled the Mountaineers to within one, 53-52, and a Jones bucket off an inbound pass from Joe Mazzulla gave West Virginia a 54-53 lead with 35 seconds remaining.
West Virginia got the basketball back nine seconds later when Terrence Jennings unsuccessfully tried to catch and shoot a pass near the rim, leaving it short where Jones was able to pull down the rebound. The forward got the ball to guard Truck Bryant, who was fouled by Chris Smith with 25 seconds on the clock.
Following a Louisville 30-second timeout, Bryant, an 80% free throw shooter who made four in a row at one point late in the second half, missed both which could have put the Mountaineers up by three.
Instead, the Cardinals got the ball back and after calling their final timeout with 13 seconds remaining, Silva was able to convert the go-ahead shot.
After Siva’s basket, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins wanted his team to push the ball toward the rim because he knew the Cardinals would be celebrating, but the Mountaineers could only get off a desperation 3-point heave ahead of the buzzer.
“I told them, ‘If they score get the ball up the floor and at the rim because they are going to celebrate. I do not want a throw,’” said Huggins. “Well, we throw one from half court with a guy, by the way, standing underneath the basket wide open. It just gets frustrating when you sit in a huddle and you say this is what we need to do and we do the exactly the opposite of what we said we needed to do.”
Louisville (16-4, 5-2) got a team-high 15 points from Chris Smith while Preston Knowles added 10.
“When you take everybody out of what they want to do they are going to ball screen and take it to the basket,” explained Huggins. “As I’ve said we don’t have guys that can do that.”
West Virginia (13-6, 4-3) built a double-digit lead in the first half behind Mazzulla’s career-high 18 points and Pepper’s 7 off the bench. Mazzulla, who was 8 of 10 shooting in the first half, failed to score in the second half. Pepper’s 3 late in the game gave him 10 to become the only other WVU player to reach double digits.
“I thought we came out tentative and that’s why I called the timeout,” said Huggins. “After that I thought we really played.”
The Mountaineers finished the game shooting 34.5% percent after a dismal 4 of 22 shooting performance in the second half. For the game, Cam Thoroughman was 1 of 3, Jones was 3 of 13, Flowers was 2 of 8, Bryant was 1 of 8 and Deniz Kilicli, who played 17 minutes, failed to try a single field goal attempt.
West Virginia’s shooting woes have now spanned three games, the Mountaineers making just 60 of their last 178 field goal attempts for 33.7%.
“We shoot 18% in the second half and two of those are layups, three or four of them are two or three footers around the goal and you can’t miss four free throws in a row,” said Huggins.
Louisville, a much bigger and more athletic team than the Mountaineers, was beaten by four on the glass (39-35) and shot just 37.5%, although the Cardinals did make eight 3s, including four during a key 13-0 run midway through the second half to retake the lead.
“We played hard, we defended, we did what we needed to do (to win the game),” said Huggins. “John Flowers I thought was terrific defensively, but we just give it back to them.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games by scoring only 54 points,” Huggins added. “And you’re not going to win many games by shooting 18% in the second half.”
Instead of returning to Morgantown after tonight’s game, the snowstorm that hit the Middle Atlantic region earlier today has forced the team to remain in Louisville tonight and then travel to Cincinnati tomorrow for Saturday night’s game against the Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena.
Cincinnati, now 18-3 and 5-3, beat Rutgers Wednesday night in Cincinnati.
West Virginia, using only seven players tonight with the suspension of leading scorer Casey Mitchell and the departure of sophomore forward Danny Jennings, had plenty of opportunities to win this one.
The Mountaineers led by 11, 42-31, with 15:10 left in the second half when the lid went on the basket. West Virginia’s next point came with 6:50 remaining (a Kevin Jones free throw) and its next basket came with 1:29 to go (a Dalton Pepper 3 from the corner).
Despite that, West Virginia was still in great shape to win the basketball game.
Pepper’s 3 pulled the Mountaineers to within one, 53-52, and a Jones bucket off an inbound pass from Joe Mazzulla gave West Virginia a 54-53 lead with 35 seconds remaining.
West Virginia got the basketball back nine seconds later when Terrence Jennings unsuccessfully tried to catch and shoot a pass near the rim, leaving it short where Jones was able to pull down the rebound. The forward got the ball to guard Truck Bryant, who was fouled by Chris Smith with 25 seconds on the clock.
Following a Louisville 30-second timeout, Bryant, an 80% free throw shooter who made four in a row at one point late in the second half, missed both which could have put the Mountaineers up by three.
Instead, the Cardinals got the ball back and after calling their final timeout with 13 seconds remaining, Silva was able to convert the go-ahead shot.
After Siva’s basket, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins wanted his team to push the ball toward the rim because he knew the Cardinals would be celebrating, but the Mountaineers could only get off a desperation 3-point heave ahead of the buzzer.
“I told them, ‘If they score get the ball up the floor and at the rim because they are going to celebrate. I do not want a throw,’” said Huggins. “Well, we throw one from half court with a guy, by the way, standing underneath the basket wide open. It just gets frustrating when you sit in a huddle and you say this is what we need to do and we do the exactly the opposite of what we said we needed to do.”
Louisville (16-4, 5-2) got a team-high 15 points from Chris Smith while Preston Knowles added 10.
“When you take everybody out of what they want to do they are going to ball screen and take it to the basket,” explained Huggins. “As I’ve said we don’t have guys that can do that.”
West Virginia (13-6, 4-3) built a double-digit lead in the first half behind Mazzulla’s career-high 18 points and Pepper’s 7 off the bench. Mazzulla, who was 8 of 10 shooting in the first half, failed to score in the second half. Pepper’s 3 late in the game gave him 10 to become the only other WVU player to reach double digits.
“I thought we came out tentative and that’s why I called the timeout,” said Huggins. “After that I thought we really played.”
The Mountaineers finished the game shooting 34.5% percent after a dismal 4 of 22 shooting performance in the second half. For the game, Cam Thoroughman was 1 of 3, Jones was 3 of 13, Flowers was 2 of 8, Bryant was 1 of 8 and Deniz Kilicli, who played 17 minutes, failed to try a single field goal attempt.
West Virginia’s shooting woes have now spanned three games, the Mountaineers making just 60 of their last 178 field goal attempts for 33.7%.
“We shoot 18% in the second half and two of those are layups, three or four of them are two or three footers around the goal and you can’t miss four free throws in a row,” said Huggins.
Louisville, a much bigger and more athletic team than the Mountaineers, was beaten by four on the glass (39-35) and shot just 37.5%, although the Cardinals did make eight 3s, including four during a key 13-0 run midway through the second half to retake the lead.
“We played hard, we defended, we did what we needed to do (to win the game),” said Huggins. “John Flowers I thought was terrific defensively, but we just give it back to them.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games by scoring only 54 points,” Huggins added. “And you’re not going to win many games by shooting 18% in the second half.”
Instead of returning to Morgantown after tonight’s game, the snowstorm that hit the Middle Atlantic region earlier today has forced the team to remain in Louisville tonight and then travel to Cincinnati tomorrow for Saturday night’s game against the Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena.
Cincinnati, now 18-3 and 5-3, beat Rutgers Wednesday night in Cincinnati.
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