West Virginia bested by St. John’s, 79-73
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va -- West Virginia's rookie coach doesn't want to be cast as a victim of anything, not even in a year that has been criminal for the Mountaineers in the way it has played out.
The latest example was Friday night when they hosted St. John's and its Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino to the Coliseum for the annual Big East-Big 12 Battle, a game that went down to the wire before the Johnnies broke loose in the final two minutes and scratched out a 79-73 before 10,781 vocal fans.
Pitino called it "a great win", coming as it did on the road and with a lot of adversity on his side, and maybe it was because there seemed to be some Coliseum magic at hand, the scoreboard showing the Red Storm clinging to a 70-68 lead after a Quinn Slazinski basket.
That's anyone's game, but it was St. John's that stepped up and took it.
"I felt like in a lot of ways St. John's was hungrier," Eilert said. "They came in here and they wanted it. They came in and played with a tenacity and we probably didn't have that approach. We had more of a finesse approach. They were more grit and grind. They came up with every hard rebound, every 50-50 ball and in a possession game like that, you have to have those extra possessions."
It's funny because WVU left its guts out there. It, like St. John's got floor burns, although none of them had a tooth chipped and had to find it on the floor as did Joel Soriano, who dominated with 24 points and nine rebounds before fouling out.
But while St. John's picked up floor burns, they also always seemed to be in the right place to get those 50-50 balls or long rebounds.
Was it tired legs with the Mountaineers again, as they played only seven players other than a cameo by freshman Jeremiah Bembrey?
The best example of what happened came with 1:30 left when Kobe Johnson chased down a rebound but fell out of bounds as he got to it, and had to bat it back into play. From there it went from one player to another as if it were a volleyball before Nahiem Alleyne gathered it in and hit a field goal, a key shot in the game.
"This young man to my left gave us a big lift making a big shot," Pitino said as he sat in the post-game interview room with Alleyne. "I knew down the stretch we had to go with somebody with a lot of experience. Outside of the travelling play, he played a great game."
WVU from that point on just couldn't get unwound. They did not hit a field goal in the final two minutes and while fouled five times, they made 1 of 2 each time.
Meanwhile, St. John's was finishing off an effort where they had 18 of their 37 rebounds off the offensive glass, leading to a lead of 26-12 in second-chance points.
"It's pretty easy to see the story of the game. "Eilert said. "Free throws down the stretch, no matter how bad we played, regardless of bad we played in terms of our defensive rebounding. We gave up 18 defensive rebounds or offensive rebounds to a team like that. You give them 26 second chance points and you are not going to have a chance to win a game like … and we really did, had we made some free throws down the stretch and cleaned up some of those things we've been trying to shore up for the entire season."
Perhaps the biggest problem is one that probably won't get fixed for two more games when Kerr Kriisa comes off NCAA suspension, setting up baskets with passes.
"Six assists." Eilert said, looking at the box score. "Some players average that and that's what we had tonight. That's just not sustainable. We try to create everything one-on-one. As a result, we have 6 assists and 12 turnovers and as a result they wind up with 15 assists and 6 turnovers."
Slazinski led WVU with 19 points and 7 rebounds while Jesse Edwards had 15 points and 6 rebounds.
WVU fell to 3-4 while St. John's went to 5-2.