After knocking off Pitt earlier in the week, Rutgers was looking for back to back wins in the Big East for Coach Mike Rice as they visited the Coliseum Saturday afternoon. The Mountaineers, who defeated Rutgers by 21 on the same day as the football teams Orange Bowl win, wasn’t having any of it. Kevin Jones led the way once again for the Mountaineers (13-5, 4-2) with 24 points and 14 rebounds in their 84-60 win over the Scarlet Knights.
Continuing the scoring attack for the Mountaineers, who led by 26 at the half after going on a 20-3 run in the first half, was Darryl “Truck” Bryant who added 18 points of his own. Deniz Kilicli and Jabarie Hinds also scored in double figures for the Mountaineers with 14 points and 11 points respectively.
“We took them out of what they wanted to do,” said West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins. “We took them out of offense and then we did the same thing in the second half – we kind of let them do what they wanted to do and we really didn’t take anything away.”
The victory makes it eight straight against Rutgers (10-8, 2-3).
Despite the large margin of victory, the young Mountaineers continued to show their lack of ability at the charity stripe. The Mountaineers and Scarlet Knights combined for 47 fouls (three technical) and 27 missed free throws. 18 of the missed free throws belonging to West Virginia.
“Eighteen free throws … I just told (the players) that can’t continue for us to do what we want to do,” said Huggins.
The Mountaineers are dead last in the Big East in free throw shooting (64.2 percent).
The Mountaineers out rebounded the Scarlet Knights 45-36 and won the turnover battle as Rutgers committed 19 to West Virginia’s 13. With the victory over Rutgers, West Virginia finds themselves in a tie with UConn and a surprising Seton Hall team for third place in the Big East. Syracuse (5-0) and Cincinnati (4-1) lead the conference. With Syracuse at the top of the class, the rest of the field is wide open for positioning for the Big East Tournament in the coming months.
West Virginia will head to Charleston for the annual Chesapeake Energy Capitol Classic game against Marshall this Wednesday.
Photo Credit: All-Pro Photography/ Dale Sparks Photo
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