Post by elp525 on Mar 18, 2011 9:23:49 GMT -5
March 17, 2011
Steals clinch Mountaineers' 84-76 win over Clemson
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
TAMPA, Fla. - When Dalton Pepper arrived at West Virginia in the summer of 2009, almost two years ago, this is probably not what the high-scoring former Pennsylvania player of the year thought would be the first real mark he made as a Mountaineer.
As a defender.
"Yeah, it is a little bit [surprising],'' Pepper said. "Because last year I was probably the worst defender on the team.''
Of course, even the worst defender on a team that stresses defense so much probably isn't half bad. And so, at the end of West Virginia's opening game of the NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon at St. Pete Times Forum, Pepper showed what he could do, and it might very well have been the thing that salvaged the game.
Playing at the top of a 1-3-1 zone that West Virginia threw at Clemson as more of a clock-burner than an actual weapon, Pepper made steals on three straight possessions in a span of 30 seconds, completely reversing every ounce of momentum and allowing the Mountaineers to escape with an 84-76 win.
The win puts the fifth-seeded and No. 22-ranked Mountaineers (21-11) into Saturday's next round against fourth-seeded and No. 11 Kentucky (26-8), which survived Princeton 59-57 in Thursday's second game here. Tipoff time is scheduled for 12:15 p.m.
The WVU-Kentucky game will be a rematch of last year's Elite Eight game in Syracuse, which the Mountaineers won 73-66 for a trip to the Final Four.
Clemson, which was playing its second game in 36 hours and its fourth since West Virginia last played, finished its season at 22-12.
After West Virginia trailed twice by 10 points in the first half, riding the momentum of an amazing end-of-the-half burst to take its own 11-point lead, and then seeing it whittled down to a one-possession game, Pepper became the most unlikely of heroes in the final 92 seconds.
Playing at the top of that 1-3-1 zone in a 76-71 game after Joe Mazzulla's two free throws gave WVU just a slight bit of breathing room, Pepper stole a pass and converted it into a dunk on the other end. Just 13 seconds later he stole another pass in the Clemson backcourt and turned that one into a layup. And then it was just 17 more seconds before he tipped another pass, tracked it down and, unable to score, got the ball to Truck Bryant, who was fouled and made a free throw.
Suddenly a 74-71 game at the 1:43 mark was 81-71 at 1:02 and West Virginia had won a first-round game in the tournament for the sixth time in its last seven appearances. And it was thanks to the defense of a guy who, Mazzulla joked later, doesn't even do those sorts of things in practice.
"When things are going bad and we need a basket,'' Mazzulla said, 'we usually just attack Dalton.''
Oh, were it only that easy for Clemson, which obviously did not expect to see West Virginia coach Bob Huggins go to the 1-3-1 in that situation, much less have it do anything except run some clock.
"It's not the normal way you would attack a 1-3-1 and obviously that's why Coach Huggins went to it. He went to it to slow the game. He went to it to make us make more passes late,'' first-year Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "You know, it would have been different if he did it with 10 minutes to go and we had time to try to use the clock and do all those kinds of different things. But my guys were trying to score quickly, we needed to score quickly.
"Certainly they were big plays, and obviously that's why [Huggins] does a great job is he went to that with four minutes to go or whatever, or three minutes to go, and we were having some success offensively, and it just forces you to play around it and probably risk some passes that you shouldn't risk. [Pepper] knocked a couple balls away and that iced the game.''
While Pepper's steals were the lasting image of the game, this was far from just a close game that was decided by big plays at the end. In fact, it was quite the contrary.
For West Virginia, the first half alternated between as well and as poorly as the Mountaineers can play. Twice they fell behind by 10-point margins, first in the game's first 61/2 minutes when they missed eight of their first 11 shots and then, after closing the gap to just one, again it was a 10-point game with 31/2 minutes to play. They allowed Clemson far too many easy baskets inside - the Tigers made 11 of their first 17 shots, six of them layups.
"That high-low pass really killed us initially. We took the low post-up away and then they'd throw it in the high post and the guy got away,'' WVU forward Cam Thoroughman said. "They got 10 points off of that and they were hitting free throws and taking us on the dribble. That just can't happen.''
That stopped just before halftime, in great part because Clemson just got sloppy with the ball and with its offense. The Mountaineers scored the last nine points of the half, capped by Kevin Jones' 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer to tie the score at 40.
"I think it just gave us a lot of momentum going into the second half where we were down basically the whole first half,'' Jones said. "It gave us a lot of confidence coming out of that locker room.''
West Virginia rode the momentum of its closing burst in the first half and slowly pulled away from the Tigers. With Mazzulla (12 points, seven assists) running things and Bryant (19 points), Jones (17 points, nine rebounds) and even Deniz Kilicli (11 points) coming up with big shots, the Mountaineers quickly went up by five, then nine points. Even when Jones and John Flowers had to sit out more than six minutes with three fouls apiece, WVU extended the lead. And then, despite all that foul trouble, West Virginia managed to ride free throws and patience on offense to go up by 11, 72-61, with just five minutes to play.
But all of those fouls eventually began to catch up, and with Mazzulla and Thoroughman (five points, eight rebounds, three assists) on the bench with four, Clemson turned the pressure way up. The Tigers scored five straight points and made a 10-2 run overall and suddenly it was 74-71 and a one-possession game with just under two minutes to play.
That's when Mazzulla probably got lucky on a foul call when he was trapped near half court and made two free throws. West Virginia then went to the 1-3-1 and Pepper saved the game with his top-of-the-defense heroics. The Mountaineers - who had made 22-of-25 free throws to that point - made enough (3-of-6) down the stretch to easily hold on.
Steals clinch Mountaineers' 84-76 win over Clemson
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
TAMPA, Fla. - When Dalton Pepper arrived at West Virginia in the summer of 2009, almost two years ago, this is probably not what the high-scoring former Pennsylvania player of the year thought would be the first real mark he made as a Mountaineer.
As a defender.
"Yeah, it is a little bit [surprising],'' Pepper said. "Because last year I was probably the worst defender on the team.''
Of course, even the worst defender on a team that stresses defense so much probably isn't half bad. And so, at the end of West Virginia's opening game of the NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon at St. Pete Times Forum, Pepper showed what he could do, and it might very well have been the thing that salvaged the game.
Playing at the top of a 1-3-1 zone that West Virginia threw at Clemson as more of a clock-burner than an actual weapon, Pepper made steals on three straight possessions in a span of 30 seconds, completely reversing every ounce of momentum and allowing the Mountaineers to escape with an 84-76 win.
The win puts the fifth-seeded and No. 22-ranked Mountaineers (21-11) into Saturday's next round against fourth-seeded and No. 11 Kentucky (26-8), which survived Princeton 59-57 in Thursday's second game here. Tipoff time is scheduled for 12:15 p.m.
The WVU-Kentucky game will be a rematch of last year's Elite Eight game in Syracuse, which the Mountaineers won 73-66 for a trip to the Final Four.
Clemson, which was playing its second game in 36 hours and its fourth since West Virginia last played, finished its season at 22-12.
After West Virginia trailed twice by 10 points in the first half, riding the momentum of an amazing end-of-the-half burst to take its own 11-point lead, and then seeing it whittled down to a one-possession game, Pepper became the most unlikely of heroes in the final 92 seconds.
Playing at the top of that 1-3-1 zone in a 76-71 game after Joe Mazzulla's two free throws gave WVU just a slight bit of breathing room, Pepper stole a pass and converted it into a dunk on the other end. Just 13 seconds later he stole another pass in the Clemson backcourt and turned that one into a layup. And then it was just 17 more seconds before he tipped another pass, tracked it down and, unable to score, got the ball to Truck Bryant, who was fouled and made a free throw.
Suddenly a 74-71 game at the 1:43 mark was 81-71 at 1:02 and West Virginia had won a first-round game in the tournament for the sixth time in its last seven appearances. And it was thanks to the defense of a guy who, Mazzulla joked later, doesn't even do those sorts of things in practice.
"When things are going bad and we need a basket,'' Mazzulla said, 'we usually just attack Dalton.''
Oh, were it only that easy for Clemson, which obviously did not expect to see West Virginia coach Bob Huggins go to the 1-3-1 in that situation, much less have it do anything except run some clock.
"It's not the normal way you would attack a 1-3-1 and obviously that's why Coach Huggins went to it. He went to it to slow the game. He went to it to make us make more passes late,'' first-year Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "You know, it would have been different if he did it with 10 minutes to go and we had time to try to use the clock and do all those kinds of different things. But my guys were trying to score quickly, we needed to score quickly.
"Certainly they were big plays, and obviously that's why [Huggins] does a great job is he went to that with four minutes to go or whatever, or three minutes to go, and we were having some success offensively, and it just forces you to play around it and probably risk some passes that you shouldn't risk. [Pepper] knocked a couple balls away and that iced the game.''
While Pepper's steals were the lasting image of the game, this was far from just a close game that was decided by big plays at the end. In fact, it was quite the contrary.
For West Virginia, the first half alternated between as well and as poorly as the Mountaineers can play. Twice they fell behind by 10-point margins, first in the game's first 61/2 minutes when they missed eight of their first 11 shots and then, after closing the gap to just one, again it was a 10-point game with 31/2 minutes to play. They allowed Clemson far too many easy baskets inside - the Tigers made 11 of their first 17 shots, six of them layups.
"That high-low pass really killed us initially. We took the low post-up away and then they'd throw it in the high post and the guy got away,'' WVU forward Cam Thoroughman said. "They got 10 points off of that and they were hitting free throws and taking us on the dribble. That just can't happen.''
That stopped just before halftime, in great part because Clemson just got sloppy with the ball and with its offense. The Mountaineers scored the last nine points of the half, capped by Kevin Jones' 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer to tie the score at 40.
"I think it just gave us a lot of momentum going into the second half where we were down basically the whole first half,'' Jones said. "It gave us a lot of confidence coming out of that locker room.''
West Virginia rode the momentum of its closing burst in the first half and slowly pulled away from the Tigers. With Mazzulla (12 points, seven assists) running things and Bryant (19 points), Jones (17 points, nine rebounds) and even Deniz Kilicli (11 points) coming up with big shots, the Mountaineers quickly went up by five, then nine points. Even when Jones and John Flowers had to sit out more than six minutes with three fouls apiece, WVU extended the lead. And then, despite all that foul trouble, West Virginia managed to ride free throws and patience on offense to go up by 11, 72-61, with just five minutes to play.
But all of those fouls eventually began to catch up, and with Mazzulla and Thoroughman (five points, eight rebounds, three assists) on the bench with four, Clemson turned the pressure way up. The Tigers scored five straight points and made a 10-2 run overall and suddenly it was 74-71 and a one-possession game with just under two minutes to play.
That's when Mazzulla probably got lucky on a foul call when he was trapped near half court and made two free throws. West Virginia then went to the 1-3-1 and Pepper saved the game with his top-of-the-defense heroics. The Mountaineers - who had made 22-of-25 free throws to that point - made enough (3-of-6) down the stretch to easily hold on.
