By Mickey Furfari
For The Register-Herald
March 02, 2008 10:58 pm
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MORGANTOWN — Old rivals West Virginia and Pitt will be battling for the 175th time in men’s basketball tonight at the Coliseum, with the Mountaineers seeking revenge for an earlier 55-54 loss in Pittsburgh.
Ronald Ramon’s buzzer-beating three-point goal made it a heartbreaker for WVU, which now has lost the last four meetings but leads the all-time series, 92-82.
Tip-off time is 7 p.m. and ESPN will televise the Big East contest nationally. While a capacity crowd of 14,000 is expected, a limited number of tickets remain available. Those will go on sale at 9 a.m. today in the Coliseum ticket office.
The Panthers (21-8, 9-7) are coming off a miraculous 82-77 victory at Syracuse Saturday. At the same time the Mountaineers (20-9, 9-7) were dropping a 79-71 decision to Connecticut in Hartford.
WVU trailed by as many as 17 points, but pulled to within three points with slightly more than four minutes left. Joe “The Hammer” Alexander had a career-high 32 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Mountaineers.
The Huskies shot 51.1 percent from the field to 41.4 percent, but won at the foul line with 22-of-29 compared to only 6-of-11 by West Virginia, which had a 29-24 edge in field goals.
With both teams tied for sixth place in the Big East standings, tonight’s winner will take over sole possession of that spot. Each team will complete regular-season play next Saturday, West Virginia at St. John’s in Madison Square Garden and the Panthers at home against DePaul.
These ancient adversaries are believed to be on the bubble for NCAA tournament at-large bids. But Bob Huggins doesn’t seem that worried as he rounds out his first season as his alma mater’s head coach.
There are those who think West Virginia must defeat both Pitt and St. John’s and possibly win one game in the Big East tournament next week to earn an invitation to the Big Dance.
“We need to win two so I’d feel a lot more comfortable,” Huggins said. “But I think we’re fine. I really do.”
He admittedly likes a lot of things his young team has achieved and hopes that the selection committee will, too.
In the slow-scoring skirmish Feb. 7, senior point guard Darris Nichols scored a game-high 16 points and Joe Mazzulla came off the bench to tally a career-high 15. Sam Young, Pitt’s leading scorer, and guard Keith Benjamin led the winning attack with 10 points each.
Neither team shot the ball very well that night. The Panthers managed a 39-36 edge in rebounds.
Alexander continues to pace WVU, having boosted his scoring average to 15.1 ppg to go with a 6.0 rebounding gait. Alex Ruoff (14.0), Da’Sean Butler (12.3) and Nichols (11.1) also are double-digit scorers.
Pitt had good scoring balance against Syracuse. Young led the way with 19 points, followed by Benjamin at 17, Levance Fields 13 and Ramon and Gilbert Brown 12 each. The Panthers have won just two of their last five games.
Jim Calhoun, UConn’s veteran coach, wasn’t surprised that WVU made it tough for his team. “There’s no taking time off in this league,” he said. “Every game, to some degree, becomes some kind of war.
“Once in awhile you’ll catch a team, but very rarely have we caught one for a full game. And you’re not going to catch West Virginia for a full game.”
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