BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Thomas Walkup scored 33 points to lead 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin to a 70-56 victory over No. 3-seed West Virginia tonight in an NCAA tournament game played at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The senior-oriented Lumberjacks (28-5) have made the NCAA tournament the last three years, defeating fifth-seeded VCU two years ago and nearly knocking off Utah last year, but they kicked down the door with tonight’s convincing victory over the eighth-rated Mountaineers.
“If you wrote down how to lose a game, you could probably check off just about everything that you wrote down, and that’s not taking anything away from Stephen F. Austin,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “I love (Stephen F. Austin coach) Brad (Underwood) to death, and Brad’s done a great job with that bunch – and they played their butts off – but you could probably make a list and check it off and say, yeah, (West Virginia) did all those things.”
After trailing by nine, 20-11, early in the first half, Stephen F. Austin took control of the game just minutes later by running as many as three defenders at WVU forward Devin Williams when he got the ball in the paint, and then overplaying the passing lanes which led to several Mountaineer turnovers and transition basket opportunities.
Back-to-back threes by Demetrious Floyd and Clide Geffrard reduced West Virginia’s lead to three, and the Lumberjacks eventually took the lead, 27-26, on two Walkup free throws, the result of a technical foul called on Nathan Adrian when he got tangled up with C.J. Williams under the basket after Floyd made a baseline jumper.
Later, Floyd also got a transition three to go down to cap a first half that saw the Lumberjacks outscore the Mountaineers 21-8 over the remaining 11:28 to take a 31-28 advantage into the locker room.
West Virginia’s shooting woes continued into the second half, WVU missing its first six shots after the intermission before Jevon Carter got a driving layup to go down.
At that point, Stephen F. Austin was leading by double digits and already had the Mountaineers on the ropes.
West Virginia fought back to make it a three-point game with 10 minutes remaining on a Williams basket, but the Lumberjacks answered with free throws from Cameron, and then a big three from Lansani Johnson with 8:31 remaining.
Another three from Johnson a minute later extended SFA’s lead to nine, and Walkup got the SFA advantage to double digits once again with more free throws at 6:40.
The Lumberjacks’ biggest lead was 16 with 1:08 to go on a Geffrard three, which caused the Michigan and Notre Dame fans filling the arena for tonight’s second game to erupt.
The issues West Virginia had all season – an inability to consistently make open shots, its struggles passing the basketball in the half court, poor decisions in transition and a propensity for fouling – all reared its ugly head tonight.
The Mountaineers shot just 30.8 percent from the floor, were unable to convert the numerous transition basket chances they had, turned the basketball over 22 times and were whistled for 27 fouls, including two technicals.
“We can’t pass, but we haven’t been able to pass all year,” noted Huggins. “We start the game and we have guys pinned and we throw it arms high. We had a guy open on an out-of-bounds play and we threw the ball right in their hands. When we spend a lot of time trying to teach guys how to pass … I think sometimes you better go recruit some guys that can pass because I’m not sure that it’s something — it’s kind of like shooting — if you’re a bad shooter, you can become a little better, but you’re never really going to be a good shooter. I think, if you’re a bad passer, you can get better, but you’re never going to be a good passer.
“It’s a skill thing.”
West Virginia experienced across-the-board shooting woes with the exception of freshman forward Esa Ahmad, who made three of four from the floor for 10 points – all of his scoring coming in the first half. Ahmad played 18 minutes, but only saw abbreviated action in the second half.
Meanwhile, WVU’s two leading scorers, Jaysean Paige and Devin Williams, made 4 of 13 and 3 of 10 from the floor respectively, Williams scoring 12 points and grabbing 17 rebounds, while Paige concluding his Mountaineer career with nine points.
Geffrard contributed 14 points for Stephen F. Austin, who will play the winner of tonight’s Notre Dame-Michigan game on Sunday.
“I just got to give my hats off to Stephen F. Austin,” said Williams. “They did what they were supposed to do. Their play showed how focused and prepared they were, and we just didn’t take it serious. That’s what happens in this tournament when you don’t take people serious. They just scouted well and soaked in what the coaching staff was giving.”
“We didn’t have the greatest of practices, but all you can kind of do is tell them,” added Huggins. “We just couldn’t … I thought we had the edge a little bit – we had that edge in the Big 12 tournament, and we just didn’t get it back.”
Tonight’s performance was easily WVU’s poorest to open the NCAA tournament since losing by 23 points to Gonzaga in a first-round game played in Pittsburgh in 2011.
WVU concludes its season with a 26-9 record.
