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WVU's Bench Comes Alive on Big Monday
February 23, 2016 12:12 AM | Men's Basketball
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia got a pair of career-high scoring performances from bench players to knock off 17th-ranked Iowa State, 97-87, tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
Jaysean Paige scored 34 points and Tarik Phillip added 22, all six of his field goal attempts coming from three, to lead the 14th-ranked Mountaineers to a season sweep of Iowa State.
Paige’s 34 points off the bench are a school record, eclipsing Chris Leonard’s 32 bench points scored in a game against St. Bonaventure on January 6, 1990.
West Virginia’s reserves outscored Iowa State’s 69-10 – the 69 points the second-most ever by the Mountaineers, falling two shy of the 71 points West Virginia’s bench produced in a game against Wisconsin-Superior in 1981.
Tonight’s game played out just like the first one in Ames back on February 2, the Mountaineers withstanding torrid Iowa State shooting to pull away at the end. The first time, WVU came back from five points down with three minutes remaining to win by five, and tonight West Virginia used a couple of big runs to come away with its 10th conference victory of the season.
“It’s a lot easier to get into pressure after you make shots,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who tied Lefty Driesell and Cliff Ellis for ninth place in NCAA history with his 786th career victory. “I thought we moved the ball better, Tarik making shots really helped when we were struggling and Jaysean is back to where he’s got a little bounce where he can finish a little better at the rim.”
The Mountaineers’ first big spurt happened with 4:25 remaining in the first half when Iowa State was leading by one, 35-34. West Virginia scored 15 of the game’s next 19 points, 11 of those coming from Paige, to build its lead to 11 with 22 seconds left in the half.
The second big run began with 5:44 left in the game and the Mountaineers ahead by just two points following Abdel Nader’s three.
Junior forward Devin Williams began the flurry with an easy basket off a pretty pass from Phillip, Paige scored on a driving layup and then Williams got two more when he rebounded Paige’s missed three and scored close to the basket.
Nader and Phillip exchanged threes and Jameel McKay threw down a dunk in transition off a nice feed from Georges Niang, but that was all Iowa State could score until Matt Thomas’ three with 38 seconds left and West Virginia leading by 13.
Monte Morris, Nader, and Morris once again missed great looks at the basket when the Cyclones were trying to catch up with West Virginia late in the game.
“They didn’t shoot it quite as well down the stretch,” said Huggins. “I think (West Virginia’s full-court pressure) gets to your legs. Those guys had to work pretty hard to get the ball up the floor.”
Paige, who struggled through a four-for-16 shooting performance on Saturday against Oklahoma after spraining his ankle ankle during last Tuesday night’s loss at Texas, came to life tonight by hitting 12-of-21, several of those coming on drives to the basket in the half court. The senior also made all nine of his free throws.
Williams added 13 and nearly had another double-double with nine rebounds.
Jonathan Holton pulled down 10 rebounds for West Virginia, now 21-7, 10-5.
Nader led Iowa State with 23 points.
“We do a lot of good things for a lot of minutes, we just don’t do it for long enough stretches,” said Iowa State coach Steve Prohm. “Everyone analyzes stats – where we were from last year to this year. We are better in all offensive categories, but on defense we are kind of where we were in league play (last place allowing 79.7 points per game in Big 12 action).”
The Cyclones shot 50.8 percent for the game, but their shooting percentage was closer to 60 percent until late in the game when they began wear down.
“We turned loose two much in the press in the second half or their shooting percentage wouldn’t have been near what it was,” said Huggins. “We didn’t do a very good job of keeping them in front of us.”
Tonight’s victory assures West Virginia of a winning regular season record in the No. 1-rated basketball conference in the country.
Huggins said he will give his team a couple of days off before traveling to Oklahoma State to play the Cowboys in Stillwater this Saturday.
Oklahoma State has dropped two in a row and faces Oklahoma in Norman on Wednesday night in the Bedlam Series rematch.
West Virginia defeated Oklahoma State 77-60 in Morgantown back on January 9.
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