WVU, Herd to Battle in Charleston
December 13, 2014 09:45 PM | General
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(8-1)
(3-5)MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 24th renewal of the Chesapeake Energy Classic will take place on Sunday afternoon at the Charleston Civic Center. Overall, West Virginia and Marshall have met 42 times on the hardwood with 25 of those meetings occurring in the Capital City.
Despite Marshall’s 3-5 record that includes a five-game losing streak heading into Sunday’s game, the Mountaineers are expecting another down-to-the-wire affair.
West Virginia, 8-1 this year and ranked 21st in the country, has won 14 of the last 18 meetings and seven of the last eight, but 13 of the last 16 games have been decided by 10 points or less, including two that went into overtime.
Last year, West Virginia trailed for most of the game and didn’t take its first lead until 3:41 remaining when Juwan Staten’s three-point play gave the Mountaineers a 63-62 lead. From there, the Herd went into self-destruct mode, scoring just two points over the final three minutes in WVU’s very deceiving 10-point victory.
Staten led all scorers with 19 points and freshman Brandon Watkins came off the bench to contribute 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Earlier this year, Marshall got off to a solid start under new coach Dan D’Antoni with victories over Jacksonville State, Savannah State and WVU Tech before the schedule got much tougher. Since then, the Herd have dropped games to Louisville (85-67), Morehead State (77-68), Cleveland State (68-59), South Carolina (77-59), and most recently, to Penn State (73-69) last Saturday.
In the Penn State game, Marshall fell behind by seven at halftime but Jay Johnson’s two free throws made it a one-possession game with 17 seconds left. Aleksa Nikolic’s layup with five seconds showing reduced Marshall’s deficit to two, but Penn State free throws on its ensuing possession sealed the victory.
Johnson was Marshall’s top point man with 19 against Penn State.
“They run a lot of sets,” said Huggins. “Dan runs a lot more pro-style stuff. Spacing is a key and they do a lot of different things with ball screens.”
Ryan Taylor, a 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound sophomore forward, leads Marshall with averages of 15.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Taylor is shooting 46 percent from the floor and is second on the team in assists with 27.
Taylor is the only projected starter for Marshall averaging double figures so far this season. Cheikh Sane, a 6-foot-9, 225-pound senior forward from Dakar, Senegal, is averaging 7.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and he scored seven in last year’s loss to West Virginia.
“They’ve got great length. Defensively that’s the biggest thing,” said Huggins of Marshall. “They’ve got great size on the perimeter and great size at the point.”
Marshall has turned the ball over 125 times in eight games so far this season, which does not bode well for the Herd facing a West Virginia’s full-court pressure defense that has generated 126 steals and 206 turnovers in just nine games.
The last time the Mountaineers played in Charleston against VMI on November 26, WVU produced a school-record-tying 26 steals. Seven different players have 10 or more steals led by junior forward Jonathan Holton’s 19.
Staten leads a balanced offensive attack with an average of 15.0 points per game, while Holton shows averages of 11.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per outing. Sophomore forward Devin Williams is averaging 10.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and shows 11 career double-doubles heading into Sunday’s affair.
Ten different Mountaineer players are averaging at least 13.4 minutes per game.
Sunday’s game will tip off at 4:30 p.m. and will air locally on ROOT SPORTS. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage on stations throughout West Virginia begins at 4 p.m.
Pregame Notes: The last time a nationally ranked West Virginia team faced Marshall in the Chesapeake Energy Capital Classic in 2011 the Herd upset the 21st-ranked Mountaineers 75-71 … In fact, Marshall has knocked off ranked Mountaineer teams two out of the last three times dating back to the 2006 game in Charleston when John Beilein was coaching West Virginia … Overall, this will be the seventh time since 1989 that West Virginia is nationally ranked heading into its game against Marshall … The Herd have never been ranked in 42 prior appearances against West Virginia … During his Friday afternoon media gathering, Huggins was asked about D’Antoni’s suggestion of returning the games to a home-and-home series … Huggins shot that down pretty quickly, “If it’s going to continue it needs to continue in Charleston,” he said … Huggins is now seven wins shy of tying Hank Iba for 13th place in all-time wins with 755 … WVU has won 56 of their last 69 games in December under Huggins … Seven of West Virginia’s eight victories this year have been by double-digit margins.
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