WVU Advances on Phillip's Late 3
March 20, 2015 05:49 PM | General
COLUMBUS, Ohio – West Virginia was able to hold off pesky Buffalo, 68-62, in an NCAA Tournament second round game here at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio Friday afternoon.
The Mountaineers (24-9) got 17 points and nine rebounds from forward Devin Williams and 15 points from guard Juwan Staten to win their first NCAA Tournament game since 2011.
"I think the bigger the situation, the tighter the game, the better Devin plays," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.
Staten, who missed the last four games of the regular season with knee and groin injuries, looked like the Juwan Staten of old, particularly in the first half when he scored 10 points to help West Virginia build a double-digit halftime lead.
West Virginia jumped on Buffalo from the opening tip and never trailed the MAC champions, leading by as many as 13 points midway through the first half.
But Buffalo (23-10) was able to stay in the game by getting transitions baskets once the Bulls were able to break West Virginia’s full-court pressure defense. An Xavier Ford 3 from the wing in transition reduced the Mountaineers’ lead to five, 29-24, and then a pair of Justin Moss free throws made it a three-point game with 4:25 left in the half.
From there, West Virginia scored seven straight points - three of those coming from Jaysean Paige on a 3 and then four straight from Staten to conclude the half.
Buffalo scored the first seven points of the second half to reduce West Virginia’s lead to three, 36-33, before Williams ended West Virginia’s scoring drought with a conventional three-point play near the basket.
Buckets by Williams, Miles and Williams once again built the lead back to 10 and West Virginia was leading by nine when the Mountaineers began hunting for SportsCenter highlight plays.
Twice, WVU came down the floor in transition and twice the Mountaineers opted for the sensational play instead of the practical one.
Freshman guard Jevon Carter had a clear path to the rim but was unable to get his driving layup to go down. Then the next time down the floor, Williams intercepted a pass at midcourt and instead of getting the ball to a guard he tried an alley oop lob pass to Jonathan Holton that sailed out of bounds.
Instead of leading expanding their lead back to 13, West Virginia’s margin was just seven when Rodell Wiggington converted both free throws after being fouled going to the basket.
A Ford 3 from the wing with 5:40 left made it a five-point game, 59-54, and then a layup by Lamonte Bearden and a three-point play from Ford pulled the Bulls to within one, 60-59.
After Staten’s driving basket made it 62-59 with 2:57 to go, Buffalo tied it 15 seconds later when Ford got his third triple to go down.
Williams responded with two free throws for West Virginia, and then Moss’ shot attempt close to the basket was unsuccessful and Williams rebounded his miss with 1:40 to go.
West Virginia, choosing to spread the floor and run clock, held the ball until Gary Browne was forced to take a contested 3 from the wing with 1:06 remaining. Buffalo couldn’t secure Browne’s miss and Williams was able to get his hand on the ball long enough for Browne to call timeout with 1:02 to go.
"I was trying to keep it in Juwan's hands as much as we could and let him try and create and make a play," explained Huggins. "And we wanted to throw it to Dev. We wanted Dev to screen and roll at the basket. We thought we could get him better iso'ed that way because we had them fairly spread."
Again, West Virginia opted to hold the ball and again, with the shot clock winding down, settled for a wing 3. This time Staten pitched to Tarik Phillip and he arched a shot high enough to get over the defender and accurate enough to sail through the hoop with 28 seconds remaining, giving the Mountaineers a five-point lead.
Huggins said Philip was in the game for defense and it was not his intention for Phillip to take that shot at the end.
"I kind of thought, why didn't I get JC (Jevon Carter) in to shoot the ball on penetration," said Huggins. "My absent-mindedness probably won the game."
Browne hit one of two from the free throw line, Shannon Evans missed his 3-point try at the other end and the Mountaineers were able to run out the clock, giving the Big 12 its second tournament victory of the day after a disastrous Thursday that saw Baylor, Iowa State and Texas all lose to higher seeded teams. And many were predicting West Virginia to go down today.
"Obviously it's a tough pill to swallow," said Buffalo coach Bobby Hurley. "We were finished with moral victories when we were at Kentucky and Wisconsin. We had a mindset of coming here, trying to win this basketball game and advancing. And I was proud of my team and how we responded to the deficit we had at halftime."
Earlier today, Kansas had no trouble depositing New Mexico State.
Ford led the Bulls with 16 points, Evans scored 15 and Moss finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. It was Buffalo’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
Daxter Miles Jr. added 10 for West Virginia, which will face the winner of Maryland-Valparaiso here on Sunday.
"It's kind of survive and advance," said Huggins. "Dev is kind of banged up and Gary and Wanny played a lot of minutes for not playing the last four games," said Huggins. "I think it's a matter of how well and how quickly they can recover to find out the effects of the game. We're not going to be able to do a whole lot tomorrow, obviously."
Update: Maryland defeated Valparaiso in the nightcap and will play West Virginia in a third-round game on Sunday. The game time will be announced later this evening.
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