Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Mountaineers Pull Away, Win With Depth?

Yeah, I just said the Mountaineers were able to use their bench to wear a team down. That's not a knock on N C State, it's just that I can't remember the last time I said that. Jarred West days?

At any rate, West Virginia won 71-60 in a less than filled Charleston Civic Center. Four of five West Virginia starters were in double figures. Alex Ruoff was a three point machine hitting all five attempts, and Joe Alexander provided the highlight dunk along with a pretty solid 15 point game. Frank Young lead all Mountaineers with 16 points.

For N C State, they were led by Courtney Fells with 17 points. West Virginia was out rebounded 33-26, but won the turnover war 17-7 for a plus three on on the Beilein scale. West Virginia was also 13-28 from three point range, while the Wolfpack was only 3-16.

I'm not ready to call this team world beaters just yet, but they have made a great deal of progress for such a young team. The true test will come with the Big East part of the schedule, but I'm liking what I see.

3 comments:

Steven said...

Congrats on the win. You guys were money from outside tonight.

John Radcliff said...

Thanks Steve. State has some players. It's just a shame they have to deal with a short bench.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they looked pretty good and rotated in more players than I would have thought. Butler, anybody? That guy is not afraid to go inside for a rebound or a score.