West, Flowers Lift WVU
Jonnie West came off the bench to score 10 second-half points, including eight during a key three-minute stretch to give the Mountaineers their first lead of the game, 52-50, with 8:49 remaining. West also hit two critical free throws with 3:04 to go to put the Mountaineers ahead 60-59. “Thank god Jonnie came in and made some shots for us,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “He got 17 minutes and got us 10 points and made some big ones for us.” John Flowers came up with three huge blocks, two during one sequence with the Mountaineers leading by one, and another with a minute left and WVU clinging to a 63-61 lead. “John is like what we’re used to seeing – a guy that can get to the ball and a guy that makes plays,” said Huggins. “I thought John was outstanding.” Leading 63-61 with nine seconds left, Duquesne’s B.J. Monteiro missed both chances at the free throw line to tie the game. Monteiro’s second miss was rebounded by Flowers, who was fouled with six seconds remaining. He managed to convert the front end of the one-and-one and after missing the second, Duquesne coach Ron Everhart called timeout to try and draw up a game-tying 3. Duquesne did get an opportunity to tie the game, but T.J. McConnell’s 3-point try from the corner was off the mark. “You can’t underestimate the difference when he made the front end of the one-and-one,” said Huggins. “Now it’s three. If it’s two it totally changes what we’re going to do defensively.” Flowers played another outstanding all-around game for the Mountaineers, finishing with 10 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and four assists. Kevin Jones led West Virginia with 15 points and nine rebounds. Truck Bryant added 12 points, including a big 3 from the corner to put the Mountaineers up by four, but he ended up shooting just 4 of 14 overall for the game. In the first half, not much was going in for West Virginia, now 7-2. WVU hit just 9 of 27 from the field for 33.3 percent, including just 1 of 10 from behind the 3-point arc. Huggins once again juggled his starting lineup, going with a five that included Dalton Pepper and Bryant in the backcourt, Flowers and Jones at forward and 6-foot-7 senior Cam Thoroughman at center. Huggins said he elected to start Thoroughman to counter Duquesne’s smaller lineup. “Because they went small I wanted Cam on the floor,” said Huggins. “That would have been hard for Danny (Jennings) and Deniz (Kilicli) to have to chase those guys. I’m hoping we can come out and kind of smack them in the mouth and get a little bit of a lead and we can play those guys more.” Thoroughman played a career-high 34 minutes and finished the game with 7 points, five assists and four rebounds. Duquesne (4-4) never trailed in the first half and led by as many as 14 points, its lead coming mostly from Bill Clark and McConnell. McConnell finished with a game-high 18 points while Clark added 16 before fouling out with 1:21 left in the game. Clark sat out a long stretch of the second half after picking up his fourth foul with 13:51 remaining. When Clark went to the bench Duquesne was leading 42-36. West Virginia had only a 35-32 advantage on the glass after out-rebounding the Dukes by a combined 45 boards in the prior three games. “We out-rebounded them by three and that kind of tells you where they have gotten to or where we have fallen to,” said Huggins. “We didn’t rebound the ball and we were very, very careless with the ball. Sixteen turnovers is outrageous, particularly when you’re playing with three guards.” Duquesne shot 40 percent for the game after hitting 4 of 8 from 3 in the first half. The beginning of the second half was delayed while work was being done to fix a bolt loose in one of the baskets. West Virginia shot at that basket in the first half while Duquesne had that basket in the second half. The Mountaineers’ victory over Duquesne was their eighth in a row dating back to 2002. “(Duquesne) is an undersized team that plays really hard,” said Huggins. “They played really, really hard.” West Virginia has another difficult assignment next Saturday when it faces undefeated Cleveland State at the Coliseum at 2 p.m. The Vikings improved to 12-0 following last night’s 74-62 victory over Sam Houston State. Last year, West Virginia needed a last second shot by Da’Sean Butler to knock off the Vikings in Cleveland. |
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