Frigid Shooting Dooms WVU
January 10, 2015 11:08 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Abdel Nader came off the bench to score 19 points and Georges Niang added 16 to lead 17th-ranked Iowa State to a 74-72 victory over 14th-ranked West Virginia Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
Tonight’s game really came down to two things for the Mountaineers – West Virginia’s inability to make open shots and a two-board deficit on the glass against a team that doesn’t start a player taller than 6-8.
“We didn’t shoot it well enough and we didn’t disrupt them enough,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We got one steal (in the first half) and we’re not going to win with one steal.”
West Virginia (14-2, 2-1) shot just 28.1 percent from the floor in the second half and 32.4 percent overall for the game, and during one key stretch late in the game the Mountaineers were just 1 of 10 from the floor. However, they still managed to hang around because of their defense and free throw shooting.
West Virginia was 21 of 28 from the line and forced 18 Cyclone turnovers, but the Mountaineers were unable to cash in on those 18 miscues by scoring just 14 points.
Nader, who came into tonight’s game averaging just 5.0 points per game, hit 6 of 11 from the floor, made all six of his free throw attempts and also grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.
Nader’s 19 and a combined 10 points from Jameel McKay and Matt Thomas gave Iowa State a 10-point advantage from its bench.
“Our half-court defense was just atrocious,” said Huggins. “It’s not a secret. We struggle to shoot the ball but that’s OK. We have to rebound it. We have to have ball security and we have to pass the ball. We have a bunch a guys with Velcro fingers because they wouldn’t pass that thing.”
It was a tough, physical, hotly contested game from start to finish.
Iowa State (12-2, 2-0) nearly led throughout, and the Cyclones had a couple of opportunities in the second half to blow it open, but the Mountaineers continued to hang around.
Trailing by eight with 10:35 to go, West Virginia scored seven in a row to pull within one, 53-52, with 8:25 remaining following a pair of Juwan Staten free throws.
The Mountaineers tied it at 55 with 7:37 left, tied it again at 57 with 6:17 remaining, and took a one-point lead 14 seconds later when Gary Browne made one of two from the line. But McKay answered with a close one and two Nader free throws pushed the Iowa State lead back to three, 61-58. Following a Staten layup, Nader nailed a big 3 at the other end to put the Cyclones up four, and then hit two more free throws to give Iowa State a six-point lead with 3:28 remaining.
Chase Connor came off the bench to bang in a 3 to reduce the deficit to three, 66-63, and the Mountaineers whittled Iowa State’s lead down to one after Staten’s three-point play made it 69-68 with 55 seconds left.
Browne came up with a steal on the inbound pass to give the Mountaineers the ball and Huggins called timeout to draw up a play, but Staten stumbled while attempting to go to the rim, lost the ball near the baseline where Holton picked it up, but he was unable to convert a close one.
Naz Long did make his close one at the other end to put Iowa State ahead by three with 29 seconds remaining. Two Holton free throws at the other end made it a one-point game before free throws by Nader and Long iced it for the Cyclones, now 4-1 all-time against West Virginia.
Staten led everyone with 23, but it took him 17 shots to get his game-high 23.
Forward Devin Williams was the only Mountaineer player to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor (5 of 9), and Huggins thought his guys should have gotten Williams some more touches in the paint, particularly in the second half. The sophomore finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds.
“We didn’t get Dev the ball near enough,” said Huggins. “He had nine shots and he should have had a lot more, particularly when they were in foul trouble.”
Jaysean Paige added 10 before fouling out.
A crowd of 12,076 watched tonight’s game.
West Virginia has little time to mull this one over with 16th-ranked Oklahoma coming to town for a game at the Coliseum on Tuesday night. The Sooners dropped a 66-63 decision in overtime at Kansas State earlier today.
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