WVU Basketball: Mountaineers Dominated by Rival Pittsburgh Panthers, 71-58

After last weekend’s upset of Notre Dame at home, the Mountaineers could not duplicate the same result as Pittsburgh took the season sweep of the hoops version of the Backyard Brawl in a rout, 71-58.

Kevin Jones, the shooting enigma for WVU, reappeared during the game collecting nine points in the first half to go with a rebound and a block for the Mountaineers.

The thing that seems to trouble me during games lately is why Jones hasn’t got the ball more with a team that doesn’t seem to be able to score for Bob Huggins if their scholarship depended on it after a good start to the season.

For Pittsburgh, the offense traveled through Gilbert Brown as he made three three-pointers in the first half in route to an 11-point first half for the home team.

After a bit of back and forth, the first half ended with West Virginia having a slim one-point lead against the No. 6 Panthers on the road.

After a close first 20 minutes of the game, Pittsburgh out-muscled the Mountaineers by a score of 41-27 in the second half on their way to victory Thursday night.

The majority of the muscle flexed was from a trio of Panthers that played kinda small in the first 20 minutes as Brad Wanamaker, Ashton Gibbs and Lamar Patterson put up 23 points for Pittsburgh.

Wanamaker was a couple of rebounds and assists from a triple double as he amassed 11 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the big win Thursday night.

As the Panthers were running away from WVU, Casey Mitchell was the main source of offense for the Mountaineers as he scored 22 points in addition to only two rebounds and an assist.

In a no show for the Mountaineers, John Flowers was held scoreless with five rebounds in 26 minutes on the floor, which could be circled as the reason for the dramatic loss to their biggest rival last night.

With that said, let’s take a look at the stats from the beatdown laid on the Mountaineers by their Steel City rivals Thursday.

Players of the Game

West Virginia: Casey Mitchell—22 Points, Two Rebounds, Assist

Pittsburgh: Brad Wanamaker—11 Points, Seven Rebounds, Eight Rebounds

Shooting

West Virginia: 17-51 Field Goals Made—Attempted, 33.3 Percent

Pittsburgh: 27-47 Field Goals Made—Attempted, 57.4 Percent

Free-Throw Shooting

West Virginia: 17-23 Free Throws Made-Attempted, 73.9 Percent

Pittsburgh: 12-20 Free Throws Made-Attempted, 60 Percent

Rebounding

West Virginia: 25 Rebounds, Nine Offensive Rebounds

Pittsburgh: 31 Rebounds, Seven Offensive Rebounds

Turnovers

West Virginia: Nine

Pittsburgh: Eight