West Virginia 72, Tennessee Tech 53
December 19, 2011 09:42 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kevin Jones scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead West Virginia to a 72-53 victory over Tennessee Tech Monday night at the WVU Coliseum in the second game of the Las Vegas Invitational.
Jones made 11 of 20 from the floor, handed out two assists, blocked one shot and made a steal in another outstanding all-around performance. It was Jones’ sixth double-double and the sixth 20-point game of the season for Jones, who moved into 11th place in career rebounding at WVU with 801 and tied Ricky Robinson for 19th place in career scoring with 1,373 points.
Truck Bryant contributed 15 points, hitting 3 of 8 from 3, and Deniz Kilicli added 12 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Bryant is now 26th on the WVU career scoring list with 1,196 points.
West Virginia (8-2) shot 45.5 percent from the floor and held Tennessee Tech to just 33.9 shooting, including a frigid 1 of 15 from behind the 3-point arc.
Speaking of 3-point shooting, WVU was 5 of 16 from behind the arc, making it the 400th consecutive game the Mountaineers have made at least one 3-point shot dating back to 1999.
Jud Dillard led Tennessee Tech (6-5) with 15 points and 12 boards while Tech’s other big gun, Kevin Murphy, finished tonight’s game with only 7 points on 2 of 11 shooting. Murphy came into the game averaging better than 21 points per game.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins credited the job Bryant did guarding Murphy tonight.
“Truck did a great job,” said Huggins, now one victory shy of 700 for his career. “That was probably as good as Truck has played defensively. He didn’t let him catch it. He forced him out of his comfort zone; made him take hard shots. I thought Truck was outstanding – and really our team defense was better on him than overall.”
After leading 33-26 at halftime, WVU used a 13-8 run to build its lead to 12, 46-34, at the first media timeout. The margin expanded to 15 at the 11-minute mark and then to 18 with 10 minutes remaining.
West Virginia’s biggest lead was 23 points, 72-49, with 1:49 left.
Freshman forward Pat Forsythe was not dressed tonight with back spasms, according to Huggins.
“He’s got a back issue again,” Huggins said. “I don’t know? I’m to the point if he can’t go and it’s going to be a prolonged deal then he’s going to get so far behind and so far out of shape that it’s going to be awful difficult for him to be productive.”
Huggins said Forsythe is going with the team to Las Vegas.
“There’s no sense him going home and not getting treated every day,” said Huggins. “I don’t think anyone knows at this point in time what we’ve got to do. But we’ve got to do something because it’s been a recurring problem.”
The Mountaineers will get on a plane tomorrow and depart for Las Vegas to play a pair of games later this week, beginning with a Thursday night contest against Missouri State before playing sixth-ranked Baylor Friday night.
Thursday night’s game against Missouri State will be televised nationally on ESPN3 while Friday’s game against Baylor will air on ESPN.
Jones made 11 of 20 from the floor, handed out two assists, blocked one shot and made a steal in another outstanding all-around performance. It was Jones’ sixth double-double and the sixth 20-point game of the season for Jones, who moved into 11th place in career rebounding at WVU with 801 and tied Ricky Robinson for 19th place in career scoring with 1,373 points.
Truck Bryant contributed 15 points, hitting 3 of 8 from 3, and Deniz Kilicli added 12 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Bryant is now 26th on the WVU career scoring list with 1,196 points.
West Virginia (8-2) shot 45.5 percent from the floor and held Tennessee Tech to just 33.9 shooting, including a frigid 1 of 15 from behind the 3-point arc.
Speaking of 3-point shooting, WVU was 5 of 16 from behind the arc, making it the 400th consecutive game the Mountaineers have made at least one 3-point shot dating back to 1999.
Jud Dillard led Tennessee Tech (6-5) with 15 points and 12 boards while Tech’s other big gun, Kevin Murphy, finished tonight’s game with only 7 points on 2 of 11 shooting. Murphy came into the game averaging better than 21 points per game.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins credited the job Bryant did guarding Murphy tonight.
“Truck did a great job,” said Huggins, now one victory shy of 700 for his career. “That was probably as good as Truck has played defensively. He didn’t let him catch it. He forced him out of his comfort zone; made him take hard shots. I thought Truck was outstanding – and really our team defense was better on him than overall.”
After leading 33-26 at halftime, WVU used a 13-8 run to build its lead to 12, 46-34, at the first media timeout. The margin expanded to 15 at the 11-minute mark and then to 18 with 10 minutes remaining.
West Virginia’s biggest lead was 23 points, 72-49, with 1:49 left.
Freshman forward Pat Forsythe was not dressed tonight with back spasms, according to Huggins.
“He’s got a back issue again,” Huggins said. “I don’t know? I’m to the point if he can’t go and it’s going to be a prolonged deal then he’s going to get so far behind and so far out of shape that it’s going to be awful difficult for him to be productive.”
Huggins said Forsythe is going with the team to Las Vegas.
“There’s no sense him going home and not getting treated every day,” said Huggins. “I don’t think anyone knows at this point in time what we’ve got to do. But we’ve got to do something because it’s been a recurring problem.”
The Mountaineers will get on a plane tomorrow and depart for Las Vegas to play a pair of games later this week, beginning with a Thursday night contest against Missouri State before playing sixth-ranked Baylor Friday night.
Thursday night’s game against Missouri State will be televised nationally on ESPN3 while Friday’s game against Baylor will air on ESPN.
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