West Virginia 78, Oral Roberts 71
November 12, 2011 12:17 AM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kevin Jones scored 20 points and Truck Bryant added 17 to lead West Virginia to a 78-71 victory over Oral Roberts Friday night at the WVU Coliseum.
In both halves, West Virginia saw double-digit leads evaporate because of full-court pressure used by the Golden Eagles that led to 21 Mountaineer turnovers.
“We didn’t do a very good job against their pressure because we really didn’t look to attack it and throw it up the floor,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We just have lapses where we are so nonchalant with the ball; we don’t go get the ball, we just kind get very nonchalant. Then we have other periods where we play pretty aggressively.”
After Bryant’s 3 gave West Virginia its biggest lead of the game at 14, 59-45, with 10:31 remaining, Oral Roberts got it down to seven, 61-54, with 9:09 to go, and then used a 15-4 run over the next five minutes to trim West Virginia’s lead to one, 72-71, with 2:43 left following a Warren Niles 3 from the wing.
Bryant answered the Niles 3 with a driving layup to give the Mountaineers a 74-71 advantage. West Virginia got the ball back on Roderick Pearson’s turnover, but Deniz Kilicli couldn’t convert in the lane, giving Oral Roberts two chances to tie the game.
Pearson’s 3 from the wing drew iron with 58 seconds left, Steven Roundtree grabbed the miss, and Scott Sutton called timeout with 55 seconds left to draw up a better play.
When action resumed, the Golden Eagles worked the ball around the perimeter and got it to Niles for a wide open look from the wing with 37 seconds left. His shot hit the front of the rim, Jones grabbed the rebound, got the ball to Bryant and he was fouled by Dominique Morrison in the backcourt with 29 seconds left.
Bryant made both free throws to put West Virginia ahead by five, 76-71, and on the other end of the floor Niles stepped out of bounds to give the ball back to West Virginia with 13 seconds remaining and the Mountaineers owning a two-possession lead.
But even then, West Virginia had difficulty finishing things off.
Jones turned the ball over in the backcourt, allowing Pearson and Roundtree to get open looks at the basket. After the Roundtree miss, Bryant was fouled by Niles with a second still showing on the clock and Bryant hit both free throws for the final points of the game.
“I told KJ and Truck, when you get it hold it (during West Virginia’s final possession of the game),” Huggins explained. “They’re down five and they’ve got 12 seconds to go and if they get a 10-second count they still can’t win, so they’ve got to foul you. They’ve got to get more than one possession. Fortunately they missed some shots.”
West Virginia tried to use a 1-3-1 defense at the end of the game to work clock and protect its lead, but it wasn't quite the defense Huggins had planned to use.
“Instead of a 1-3-1 we were playing a 1-3 with a chaser - which I’ve never seen before,” Huggins noted.
Kilicli added 11 after sitting out last Friday’s exhibition game against Northern Kentucky, and freshman Aaron Brown came off the bench to contribute 10 points in 19 minutes, hitting a pair of big 3s from the wing. West Virginia’s bench outscored Oral Roberts’ 19-0.
At one point in the second half Huggins was playing three freshmen at the same time in the backcourt – Jabarie Hinds, Gary Browne and Aaron Brown – along with junior college transfer Dominique Rutledge, who was playing his first regular season game at the Coliseum.
West Virginia shot 58.8 percent overall for the game, including 60 percent in the second half.
Oral Roberts (0-1), picked to win the Summit League, got a game-high 21 points from Morrison while Roundtree added 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. The Golden Eagles had a 37-24 advantage on the glass.
West Virginia (1-0) has another tough one coming up next Tuesday morning as part of ESPN’s 24 hours of college basketball, facing a Kent State team with pretty much the same players returning from last year’s 25-12 season and a MAC regular season title.
“I guess I could have scheduled a bunch of dogs and said we’re young and we really need this. Or I can say we’re just too young and we can’t win,” Huggins said. “That doesn’t make me sleep any better. And I don’t enjoy at this point in my life winning by 40 or 50. I don’t think we get better doing that. It’s fool’s gold.”
The Kent State game will tip off at the unusual time of 10 a.m.
In both halves, West Virginia saw double-digit leads evaporate because of full-court pressure used by the Golden Eagles that led to 21 Mountaineer turnovers.
“We didn’t do a very good job against their pressure because we really didn’t look to attack it and throw it up the floor,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We just have lapses where we are so nonchalant with the ball; we don’t go get the ball, we just kind get very nonchalant. Then we have other periods where we play pretty aggressively.”
After Bryant’s 3 gave West Virginia its biggest lead of the game at 14, 59-45, with 10:31 remaining, Oral Roberts got it down to seven, 61-54, with 9:09 to go, and then used a 15-4 run over the next five minutes to trim West Virginia’s lead to one, 72-71, with 2:43 left following a Warren Niles 3 from the wing.
Bryant answered the Niles 3 with a driving layup to give the Mountaineers a 74-71 advantage. West Virginia got the ball back on Roderick Pearson’s turnover, but Deniz Kilicli couldn’t convert in the lane, giving Oral Roberts two chances to tie the game.
Pearson’s 3 from the wing drew iron with 58 seconds left, Steven Roundtree grabbed the miss, and Scott Sutton called timeout with 55 seconds left to draw up a better play.
When action resumed, the Golden Eagles worked the ball around the perimeter and got it to Niles for a wide open look from the wing with 37 seconds left. His shot hit the front of the rim, Jones grabbed the rebound, got the ball to Bryant and he was fouled by Dominique Morrison in the backcourt with 29 seconds left.
Bryant made both free throws to put West Virginia ahead by five, 76-71, and on the other end of the floor Niles stepped out of bounds to give the ball back to West Virginia with 13 seconds remaining and the Mountaineers owning a two-possession lead.
But even then, West Virginia had difficulty finishing things off.
Jones turned the ball over in the backcourt, allowing Pearson and Roundtree to get open looks at the basket. After the Roundtree miss, Bryant was fouled by Niles with a second still showing on the clock and Bryant hit both free throws for the final points of the game.
“I told KJ and Truck, when you get it hold it (during West Virginia’s final possession of the game),” Huggins explained. “They’re down five and they’ve got 12 seconds to go and if they get a 10-second count they still can’t win, so they’ve got to foul you. They’ve got to get more than one possession. Fortunately they missed some shots.”
West Virginia tried to use a 1-3-1 defense at the end of the game to work clock and protect its lead, but it wasn't quite the defense Huggins had planned to use.
“Instead of a 1-3-1 we were playing a 1-3 with a chaser - which I’ve never seen before,” Huggins noted.
Kilicli added 11 after sitting out last Friday’s exhibition game against Northern Kentucky, and freshman Aaron Brown came off the bench to contribute 10 points in 19 minutes, hitting a pair of big 3s from the wing. West Virginia’s bench outscored Oral Roberts’ 19-0.
At one point in the second half Huggins was playing three freshmen at the same time in the backcourt – Jabarie Hinds, Gary Browne and Aaron Brown – along with junior college transfer Dominique Rutledge, who was playing his first regular season game at the Coliseum.
West Virginia shot 58.8 percent overall for the game, including 60 percent in the second half.
Oral Roberts (0-1), picked to win the Summit League, got a game-high 21 points from Morrison while Roundtree added 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. The Golden Eagles had a 37-24 advantage on the glass.
West Virginia (1-0) has another tough one coming up next Tuesday morning as part of ESPN’s 24 hours of college basketball, facing a Kent State team with pretty much the same players returning from last year’s 25-12 season and a MAC regular season title.
“I guess I could have scheduled a bunch of dogs and said we’re young and we really need this. Or I can say we’re just too young and we can’t win,” Huggins said. “That doesn’t make me sleep any better. And I don’t enjoy at this point in my life winning by 40 or 50. I don’t think we get better doing that. It’s fool’s gold.”
The Kent State game will tip off at the unusual time of 10 a.m.
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