Kent State 70, West Virginia 60
November 15, 2011 12:59 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kent State’s backcourt trio of Carlton Guyton, Randal Holt and Michael Porrini combined to score 41 points to lead the Golden Flashes to a 70-60 victory over West Virginia in a Tuesday morning college basketball game at the WVU Coliseum.
West Virginia led 33-28 at halftime, but the Golden Flashes went on a 19-4 run midway through the second half to take control of the game.
“We throw the ball to them; we throw the ball to them for layups, we don’t get back and today it wasn’t just the freshmen,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “Today we had seniors who didn’t do their job.”
A Justin Greene dunk reduced Kent State’s deficit to three, 37-34, and ignited the Golden Flashes. A Holt 3 tied the game at 41, and then back-to-back baskets by Patrick Jackson and Chris Evans pushed Kent State’s lead to four, 45-41.
West Virginia (1-1) managed just one basket during an eight-minute span after Jabarie Hinds’ layup with 16:16 remaining and a Deniz Kilicli field goal with 8:03 to go. In the meantime, the Golden Flashes’ lead swelled to nine, 58-49, and the margin eventually got to 13 with 4:44 remaining.
The loss snapped West Virginia’s 36 game non-conference home winning streak dating back to a 71-68 overtime loss to LSU on Nov. 26, 2005. It is also the first double-digit home defeat to a non-conference opponent since Dec. 2, 1998 when Georgia topped the Mountaineers 75-63.
“The thing that bothers me more than anything is that we stopped competing,” said Huggins. “We can fix throwing the ball to them. I told you I would fix the rebounding. We can fix that. It’s an effort thing and that’s getting where you’re supposed to be. But throwing the ball to people …”
West Virginia suffered from cold shooting in both halves, hitting 39.3 percent of its first-half field goal attempts and just 34.5 percent in the second half to shoot 36.8 overall. WVU also missed 12 free throws.
“Those 12 misses, that’s got to be 20 points that we leave out there,” said Huggins.
What kept WVU in the game was its work on the glass, holding a 27-12 rebounding advantage at the break and finishing with a 46-31 margin for the game.
Kevin Jones and Kilicli combined to grab 33 boards, including 20 on the offensive glass. Jones finished with 15 points and 18 rebounds while Kilicli added 11 points and 15 boards.
“They get 33 of our 46, what are those other guys doing?” said Huggins. “That’s effort.”
Hinds added 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting, while Truck Bryant scored 12 points. West Virginia, after committing 21 turnovers in its opener last Friday against Oral Roberts, had 17 more this morning.
“It was 17 turnovers that led directly to baskets,” said Huggins. “Not all 17, but when they made their run we threw them the ball.”
Kent State (1-0), which shot 58.1 percent in the second half, was led by Guyton’s 17 points. Holt scored 13 and Greene added 12.
“That 58 percent they shot in the second half means we don’t guard them,” said Huggins. “I told those guys it was the same play by the same players. It was the same ball screen and we guarded it in the first half and we didn’t in the second half.
“We didn’t have near the effort, we didn’t have near the bounce in our step that we had in the first half,” said Huggins. “I told them, you can be a freshman or you can be a player. Four years ago we had three freshmen in our top six, which is what we’re doing right now.”
Huggins said the difference in the first half was Kent State didn’t score enough to get into pressure.
“They trap after a timeout, that’s the only time they trap,” said Huggins. “We knew that. We saw it on film and we worked against it.”
West Virginia has a quick turnaround with a game on Thursday night against Alcorn State at the Coliseum. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
West Virginia led 33-28 at halftime, but the Golden Flashes went on a 19-4 run midway through the second half to take control of the game.
“We throw the ball to them; we throw the ball to them for layups, we don’t get back and today it wasn’t just the freshmen,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “Today we had seniors who didn’t do their job.”
A Justin Greene dunk reduced Kent State’s deficit to three, 37-34, and ignited the Golden Flashes. A Holt 3 tied the game at 41, and then back-to-back baskets by Patrick Jackson and Chris Evans pushed Kent State’s lead to four, 45-41.
West Virginia (1-1) managed just one basket during an eight-minute span after Jabarie Hinds’ layup with 16:16 remaining and a Deniz Kilicli field goal with 8:03 to go. In the meantime, the Golden Flashes’ lead swelled to nine, 58-49, and the margin eventually got to 13 with 4:44 remaining.
The loss snapped West Virginia’s 36 game non-conference home winning streak dating back to a 71-68 overtime loss to LSU on Nov. 26, 2005. It is also the first double-digit home defeat to a non-conference opponent since Dec. 2, 1998 when Georgia topped the Mountaineers 75-63.
“The thing that bothers me more than anything is that we stopped competing,” said Huggins. “We can fix throwing the ball to them. I told you I would fix the rebounding. We can fix that. It’s an effort thing and that’s getting where you’re supposed to be. But throwing the ball to people …”
West Virginia suffered from cold shooting in both halves, hitting 39.3 percent of its first-half field goal attempts and just 34.5 percent in the second half to shoot 36.8 overall. WVU also missed 12 free throws.
“Those 12 misses, that’s got to be 20 points that we leave out there,” said Huggins.
What kept WVU in the game was its work on the glass, holding a 27-12 rebounding advantage at the break and finishing with a 46-31 margin for the game.
Kevin Jones and Kilicli combined to grab 33 boards, including 20 on the offensive glass. Jones finished with 15 points and 18 rebounds while Kilicli added 11 points and 15 boards.
“They get 33 of our 46, what are those other guys doing?” said Huggins. “That’s effort.”
Hinds added 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting, while Truck Bryant scored 12 points. West Virginia, after committing 21 turnovers in its opener last Friday against Oral Roberts, had 17 more this morning.
“It was 17 turnovers that led directly to baskets,” said Huggins. “Not all 17, but when they made their run we threw them the ball.”
Kent State (1-0), which shot 58.1 percent in the second half, was led by Guyton’s 17 points. Holt scored 13 and Greene added 12.
“That 58 percent they shot in the second half means we don’t guard them,” said Huggins. “I told those guys it was the same play by the same players. It was the same ball screen and we guarded it in the first half and we didn’t in the second half.
“We didn’t have near the effort, we didn’t have near the bounce in our step that we had in the first half,” said Huggins. “I told them, you can be a freshman or you can be a player. Four years ago we had three freshmen in our top six, which is what we’re doing right now.”
Huggins said the difference in the first half was Kent State didn’t score enough to get into pressure.
“They trap after a timeout, that’s the only time they trap,” said Huggins. “We knew that. We saw it on film and we worked against it.”
West Virginia has a quick turnaround with a game on Thursday night against Alcorn State at the Coliseum. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
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