Campus Connection: Phillip Hits Biggest Shot
March 20, 2015 07:22 PM | General
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| Tarik Phillip's 3-point shot with 28 seconds left helped West Virginia defeat Buffalo 68-62 Friday afternoon at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Soarks photo |
West Virginia, leading Buffalo 64-62 with the game and shot clock winding down, got a huge 3 from the corner from Tarik Phillip with 28 seconds left to make it a five point game.
Phillip’s basket gave the Mountaineers enough room to beat Buffalo 68-62 Friday afternoon and move on to a third-round game on Sunday.
It is the first post-season victory for West Virginia since 2012 when the Mountaineers defeated Clemson in a second-round game in Tampa, Florida.
Here in Columbus, Huggins wanted the ball in point guard Juwan Staten’s hands at the end of the game. And his preference was for either Staten or forward Devin Williams to take the shot.
“I was trying to keep it in Wanny’s hands as much as we could and let him try and create and make a play,” Huggins explained. “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 he did have them fairly spread.”
When Staten made his move to the basket with the shot clock winding down he lost his footing slightly and his only option was to pitch the ball to Tarik Phillip standing out on the wing in front of the West Virginia bench – the same Tarik Phillip who was 5-of-25 from behind the arc this season.
“Wanny was penetrating and doing his thing. He found me and I knocked it down … luckily,” said Phillip.
“Really, I kind of thought why didn’t I get him out and get J.C. (Jevone Carter) in to shoot the ball on penetration?” said Huggins. “My absent-mindedness probably won the game.”
Phillip said this was easily the biggest shot he’s ever hit in his life. His main concern was shooting the ball high enough to get it over Buffalo’s wing defender.
“He was closing out hard and I was thinking, get it off because the first one I didn’t really get it off in time,” said Phillip.
He also didn’t have any time to celebrate his biggest basket.
“I was thinking too much about getting back. Huggs always wants us to get back so I just ran back and played defense,” said Phillip.
The NCAA Tournament has a mysterious way of bringing this out of guys.
The Brooklyn, N.Y. resident, a junior college transfer from Independence Community College, was originally set to go to South Carolina before those plans fell through.
Then he signed with West Virginia as a late-spring addition to give the Mountaineers more experience, depth and more of a physical presence at the guard position.
Phillip appeared in 31 games this year, averaging 12.9 minutes per game primarily as a defensive specialist, although he did score 13 in a win over Kansas and 12 points in victories against Kansas State and VMI.
“We’ve got a deep team so anybody can be in that position at any time,” Phillip said. “We’ve just got to all stay ready and push ourselves to stay ready. It was just my situation and my time.”
It was his situation and it was his time, fortunately for Huggins and for West Virginia.
“It’s another game. It’s a long road,” Phillip said. “We’re not satisfied with this win at all. We’ve got bigger goals so we’re just thinking about the bigger goals right now.”
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