Mountaineers Cruise

Mountaineers Cruise

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
November 27, 2007

BOX SCORE

	Joe Alexander

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Joe Alexander scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead West Virginia to a 110-44 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum.

Five West Virginia players reached double figures in the Mountaineers’ highest point total of the season. Alex Ruoff scored 17 and Da’Sean Butler scored 12 among the starters, while John Flowers (14) and Wellington Smith (12) reached double digits coming off the bench.

“Teams that are hard to guard are teams that can put a bunch of guys on the floor that can score,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “If you put a couple of guys out there that can’t play and you’ve got three really good players then it’s really obvious where your help is going to come from. Those guys end up playing one against two. I would just as soon have a bunch of guys out there make shots.”

All 13 West Virginia players that got into the game scored.

“I thought we had three or four possession today when we ran offense better than we have all year,” said Huggins. “It had more to do with us not holding the ball and not being tentative or apprehensive with the ball.

“When our guys catch the ball they make reads. There are three reads that they are supposed to make and I think early on they were very tentative with what they were supposed to do,” Huggins explained. “Hopefully we’re starting to understand it a little bit better.”

West Virginia made 45 of 73 from the field (61.6 percent) including 12 of 20 from 3-point range. WVU also had a 14-rebound advantage on the glass.

Denzel Jackson and Ed Tyson scored 10 each for Maryland Eastern Shore, now 1-6.

“You can see that when we get to where we’re supposed to get that it’s very hard for people to run offense,” Huggins said. “That’s where we’ve got to get.”

West Virginia boosts its record to 4-1 and will have a much stiffer challenge Saturday afternoon against Winthrop, an NCAA tournament participant last year. The Eagles had their 24-game home winning streak snapped on Nov. 25 against Missouri State and show a 3-2 record before tomorrow night’s game at East Carolina.

Tip off for Saturday’s game against Winthrop is 1 p.m. The contest will be carried live on a Pay-Per-View basis online through MSNsportsNET.com.



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