PITTSBURGH - West Virginia played another game without its starting backcourt Saturday night, this time overcoming injuries to Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla to beat Duquesne 68-63 at the Palumbo Center.
PITTSBURGH - West Virginia played another game without its starting backcourt Saturday night, this time overcoming injuries to Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla to beat Duquesne 68-63 at the Palumbo Center.
But it wasn't easy and apparently it took some halftime arm-twisting by Bob Huggins to get the remaining Mountaineers to deal with the fact that they were on their own and that they had better get used to it.
"Who knows if they're coming back?'' Huggins asked after West Virginia overcame a 12-point first-half deficit. "They may not be back, so we'd better get some guys on the floor who are going to play. I'm like those NFL coaches. I coach the guys who are there.''
The trouble Saturday night was that from minute to minute it was hard to tell who was going to be there. If it wasn't Ruoff and Mazzulla sitting it out with shoulder injuries, it was Da'Sean Butler and just about everyone else missing time because of foul trouble.
Eventually, though, West Virginia used the same formula it went to earlier in the week in a loss to Davidson, pounding the offensive glass relentlessly and eventually wearing down the Dukes. There was even a surprise at the end - game-clinching free-throw shooting.
Led by Devin Ebanks' third straight double-double and fellow freshman Truck Bryant's steady floor play, the Mountaineers (7-2) dominated Duquesne to start the second half and held on at the end. They overcame missing 20 3-pointers and committing 10 first-half turnovers by collecting a staggering 53 rebounds.
But not before Duquesne (5-3) built a 33-21 lead late in the first half and appeared well on its way to just pressing and driving the rudderless Mountaineers into submission.
"We were tentative. We played like we were scared. We were not the aggressor,'' Huggins said. "We spent two days talking about not throwing the ball backwards and that's all we did was throw it backwards.''
Well, there were problems other than a lack of aggressiveness. Butler, for instance, missed his first six shots, finally made one and then committed his second foul and had to sit out the final 9:22 of the first half. Ebanks encountered foul trouble too, and it was when he and Butler were both out - with Ruoff and Mazzulla, that's four-fifths of the normal starting lineup - that Duquesne ran off 11 straight points to take that big lead.
West Virginia whittled it back to 35-27 by halftime, but the first 10 minutes of the second half made the difference. Dominating the backboards and getting second and third shots every trip, the Mountaineers ran off the first 12 points of the half and never trailed again.
And all of this with Butler shooting 3-for-13 and with the Mountaineers going 3-for-23 from 3-point range. But West Virginia also had a stunning 26 offensive rebounds and outscored Duquesne 16-4 in second-chance points.
"We're very accustomed to [getting offensive rebounds],'' Huggins said. "That's because we miss so many shots.''
On this night again, though, the misses didn't matter because missed shots were the Mountaineers' best offensive weapon. John Flowers had five offensive rebounds (10 overall) and Wellington Smith had four, including a swooping, one-handed tomahawk of a dunk on a Flowers miss. Smith had 12 points to go with seven rebounds and four blocked shots, while Ebanks had 15 points and 10 boards.
But perhaps the most significant overall contribution was from point guard Bryant, who played 36 minutes - "I admit I was a little winded,'' he said - trying to hold things together without Mazzulla and Ruoff. Bryant missed all five of his 3-point attempts and had just two assists, but he scored a team-high 18 points, had only two turnovers and in the final 55 seconds was 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
"All in all I thought Bryant did a real nice job handling our press,'' said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart.
The trouble for the Dukes, though, was that they missed their first 12 shots of the second half and could never get into that press. Aaron Jackson led Duquesne with 19 points.
West Virginia is now off for a week before playing Miami (Ohio) at noon next Saturday.
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
West Virginia (7-2)
Player FG FT R A P
Devin Ebanks 6-12 3-4 10 4 15
Wellington Smith 4-9 3-7 7 2 12
PITTSBURGH - West Virginia played another game without its starting backcourt Saturday night, this time overcoming injuries to Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla to beat Duquesne 68-63 at the Palumbo Center.
But it wasn't easy and apparently it took some halftime arm-twisting by Bob Huggins to get the remaining Mountaineers to deal with the fact that they were on their own and that they had better get used to it.
"Who knows if they're coming back?'' Huggins asked after West Virginia overcame a 12-point first-half deficit. "They may not be back, so we'd better get some guys on the floor who are going to play. I'm like those NFL coaches. I coach the guys who are there.''
The trouble Saturday night was that from minute to minute it was hard to tell who was going to be there. If it wasn't Ruoff and Mazzulla sitting it out with shoulder injuries, it was Da'Sean Butler and just about everyone else missing time because of foul trouble.
Eventually, though, West Virginia used the same formula it went to earlier in the week in a loss to Davidson, pounding the offensive glass relentlessly and eventually wearing down the Dukes. There was even a surprise at the end - game-clinching free-throw shooting.
Led by Devin Ebanks' third straight double-double and fellow freshman Truck Bryant's steady floor play, the Mountaineers (7-2) dominated Duquesne to start the second half and held on at the end. They overcame missing 20 3-pointers and committing 10 first-half turnovers by collecting a staggering 53 rebounds.
But not before Duquesne (5-3) built a 33-21 lead late in the first half and appeared well on its way to just pressing and driving the rudderless Mountaineers into submission.
"We were tentative. We played like we were scared. We were not the aggressor,'' Huggins said. "We spent two days talking about not throwing the ball backwards and that's all we did was throw it backwards.''
Well, there were problems other than a lack of aggressiveness. Butler, for instance, missed his first six shots, finally made one and then committed his second foul and had to sit out the final 9:22 of the first half. Ebanks encountered foul trouble too, and it was when he and Butler were both out - with Ruoff and Mazzulla, that's four-fifths of the normal starting lineup - that Duquesne ran off 11 straight points to take that big lead.
West Virginia whittled it back to 35-27 by halftime, but the first 10 minutes of the second half made the difference. Dominating the backboards and getting second and third shots every trip, the Mountaineers ran off the first 12 points of the half and never trailed again.
And all of this with Butler shooting 3-for-13 and with the Mountaineers going 3-for-23 from 3-point range. But West Virginia also had a stunning 26 offensive rebounds and outscored Duquesne 16-4 in second-chance points.
"We're very accustomed to [getting offensive rebounds],'' Huggins said. "That's because we miss so many shots.''
On this night again, though, the misses didn't matter because missed shots were the Mountaineers' best offensive weapon. John Flowers had five offensive rebounds (10 overall) and Wellington Smith had four, including a swooping, one-handed tomahawk of a dunk on a Flowers miss. Smith had 12 points to go with seven rebounds and four blocked shots, while Ebanks had 15 points and 10 boards.
But perhaps the most significant overall contribution was from point guard Bryant, who played 36 minutes - "I admit I was a little winded,'' he said - trying to hold things together without Mazzulla and Ruoff. Bryant missed all five of his 3-point attempts and had just two assists, but he scored a team-high 18 points, had only two turnovers and in the final 55 seconds was 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
"All in all I thought Bryant did a real nice job handling our press,'' said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart.
The trouble for the Dukes, though, was that they missed their first 12 shots of the second half and could never get into that press. Aaron Jackson led Duquesne with 19 points.
West Virginia is now off for a week before playing Miami (Ohio) at noon next Saturday.
Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
West Virginia (7-2)
Player FG FT R A P
Devin Ebanks 6-12 3-4 10 4 15
Wellington Smith 4-9 3-7 7 2 12
John Flowers 2-11 1-2 10 2 5
Da'Sean Butler 3-13 0-0 8 1 6
Darryl Bryant 6-13 6-7 4 2 18
Cam Thoroughman 0-2 0-0 4 1 0
Kevin Jones 4-7 0-0 6 1 9
Josh Sowards 1-2 0-0 1 0 3
Will Thomas 0-1 0-0 0 2 0
Team 3
Totals 26-70 13-20 53 15 68
Duquesne (5-3)
Player FG FT R A P
Damian Saunders 7-12 2-3 7 1 16
Bill Clark 5-12 0-0 5 4 13
Aaron Jackson 5-8 8-10 3 4 19
Jason Duty 0-3 4-4 1 0 4
Melquan Bolding 0-5 0-0 1 0 0
Eric Evans 0-5 0-0 2 2 0
David Theis 3-7 0-0 3 0 8
B.J. Monteiro 1-2 1-2 2 0 3
Team 7
Totals 21-54 15-19 31 11 63
Halftime: Duquesne 35-27. 3-point goals: West Virginia 3-23 (Ebanks 0-3, Smith 1-5, Flowers 0-2, Butler 0-3, Bryant 0-5, Thoroughman 0-1, Jones 1-2, Sowards 1-2). Duquesne 6-21 (Saunders 0-2, Clark 3-10, Jackson 1-1, Duty 0-3, Evans 0-2, Theis 2-2, Monteiro 0-1). Attendance: 3,487.
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