Jones, Flowers Lead WVU

By John Antonik for WVUsports.com
January 16, 2011 02:48 PM

John Flowers makes this free throw with 1.5 seconds left to seal West Virginia's 68-64 victory over eighth-ranked Purdue at the WVU Coliseum.

All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last month, Bob Huggins went through a laundry list of things he wanted his basketball team to improve upon before getting into the heart of its schedule.

He wanted them to share the basketball and pass it more often. He wanted them to crash the glass with gusto and he wanted them to defend with a greater sense of urgency. Well, what a difference a month can make.

West Virginia did all three well enough on Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum to get a big 68-64 non-conference victory over eighth-ranked Purdue before a nationally televised audience on CBS.

“It’s a good for us,” said Huggins. “The more games you play like this the more you become accustomed to them. I thought defensively we did a pretty good job down the stretch.”

Senior John Flowers continued his exceptional play by scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds, and it was his game-sealing free throw with 1.5 seconds left that gave the Mountaineers their four-point victory.

Flowers was coming off a career-high 24 points against Providence on Thursday night in a game in which he held the Friars’ leading scorer Marshon Brooks to just 13 points – 11 below his season’s average.

“Flowers is one of those wild-card guys for them – he can get 3 or he can get 25,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter. “Some games he’ll shoot five times and some games he’ll shoot 12 or he’ll shoot once. It’s kind of interesting scouting. He’s a good player for them and a good defender; he rebounds the basketball and when he punches in there for 10 or 15 points, it really helps that team.”

Kevin Jones led the Mountaineers with 17 points and nine rebounds and it was the clutch 3-point shooting of Jones and Flowers in the second half that kept Purdue within sight.

The Boilermakers (15-3) had a 44-38 lead with 14:17 left in the game following E’Twaun Moore’s 3 and had three more opportunities to increase their lead, but JaJuan Johnson, who finished with a game-high 26 points, missed twice on back-to-back possessions and Lewis Jackson turned the ball over, which eventually led to a pair of Truck Bryant free throws.

Purdue again got its lead to six following a Kelsey Barlow dunk with 7:57 remaining. Then 17 seconds later Flowers nailed a big 3 and after a Purdue miss, Jones came down and hit another 3 to put the Mountaineers back in the lead, 52-50.

“John made a huge 3,” said Huggins. “I put Casey (Mitchell) in the corner because I thought they’d help from that side and they ended up helping from John and he makes that huge 3, and then he makes another huge 3 from the other side.”

West Virginia got its lead to six twice at 58-52 and 60-54 before Purdue whittled it down, mainly because of missed free throws by the Mountaineers.

Joe Mazzulla eventually was able to hit one of two with 17 seconds to go to give WVU a three-point lead, Ryne Smith missed a 3 to tie the game with eight seconds left on the clock and Bryant was fouled with four seconds remaining. He hit both shots to put West Virginia up by five.

Painter called timeout to devise a play that ended up working to give the Boilermakers a chance at a possible 3 to tie the game. D.J. Byrd threw the basketball the length of the court to Johnson, who turned around and hit a shot with two seconds left to reduce West Virginia’s lead to three, 67-64.

Flowers was fouled by Moore on the inbound pass and managed to make the first of two. Had he missed both and Purdue grabbed the rebound, the Boilermakers could have tried a 3 to tie the game.

Bryant contributed 12 points and Mazzulla, who also hit a big bucket with 55 seconds to go, came off the bench to score 10, although he struggled from the foul line going 4 of 10. Overall, West Virginia was 17 of 26 from the charity stripe while Purdue finished 5 of 7.

The Boilermakers were also beaten 37-29 on the glass to drop back to back games for the first time this season. Purdue lost at Minnesota earlier this week.

Moore scored 14 and Jackson added 10 for the Boilermakers.

“Johnson is a really good player,” said Huggins. “He about fouled out three of our guys himself.”

West Virginia had 13 turnovers at halftime but only committed four more for the remainder of the game.

“We were out of sorts,” admitted Huggins. “We were just trying to go too fast and trying to make plays that weren’t there. It’s miraculous that we were up by one (at halftime) the way we threw the ball around.”

The Mountaineers’ victory over Purdue was the second ranked team they have defeated in a span of eight days, and the first win over a top 10-ranked non-conference home opponent since beating second-ranked UCLA in 2007 – John Beilein’s final year at WVU.

A season-high 14,173 attended today’s game.

“We’ve got seven more Big East games and it would be a phenomenal thing if everybody would come to those games to help this team,” Huggins said. “I told them in there, everybody is going to be giddy about this win but the truth of the matter is if we don’t take care of our business on Wednesday this one doesn’t mean anything.”

West Virginia (12-4) wraps up non-conference play on Wednesday night against Marshall in Charleston in the annual Capital Classic at the Charleston Civic Center.

Marshall is now 12-5 after losing at Memphis on Saturday.