FINAL: West Virginia finishes off N.C. State 83-69

West Virginia’s Jonathan Holton and Gary Browne trap N.C. State point guard Cat Barber during Saturday night’s game at Madison Square Garden.

 

NEW YORK — Manhattan was aglow and the Mecca of Basketball was building toward Game No. 3 of the day: West Virginia vs. N.C. State in the Gotham Classic. (It was Suns over Knicks this afternoon and Spiders over Waves this evening.)

The Mountaineers prevailed 83-69, and I was working from the baseline throughout the night. A recap of the live blog exists below:

FINAL: West Virginia wins 83-69: Thanks to Juwan Staten’s 22 points—and ANOTHER Holton 3-pointer from the left corner—the Mountaineers finished strong at the Garden. While overcoming 31 fouls, West Virginia earned its best nonconference win to date. … Juwan Staten (who else?) wins game MVP with 24 points and six assists. His first game in NYC played out satisfactorily.

WVU leads 75-66 (3:04 second half): Holton’s long 3-point slump ended when he swished an open jumper from the corner off a drive-and-dish by Staten. For those scoring the misses at home, he had clanked 12 straight dating back to the Nov. 26 game against VMI. … N.C. State is 11-of-15 from the floor this half but has made up no ground on that 41-32 halftime deficit.

WVU leads 63-57 (8:13 second half): Timeout Wolfpack. On a nasty crossover/jumper by Staten, N.C. State’s Desmond Lee became an ankle donor. Just crumpled as the crowd oohed. On the next trip, Staten got free on the left wing and sank another one. He’s got 20 on 9-of-15 shooting.

WVU leads 50-46 (11:48 second half): There’s some playground-style competition developing between Staten and Lacey. West Virginia’s guard is 3-of-3 this half with an assist, giving him a game-high 16 points currently. Should be fun to watch as the final half develops. … One huge factor in a tightly officiated game: WVU put N.C. State in the bonus with 13:37 left.

WVU leads 44-43 (15:54 second half): Lacey’s heating up. He made two 3s, including one off a standing pull-up that had him smiling at some WVU fans as he retreated down court. (I watched him win three state championships in Alabama. He’s not an explosive athlete, but he’s got the scorer/winner sense of timing). … Also more active for the Wolfpack is the sizable BeeJay Anya. He had zero points and zero boards in the opening half but quickly put up four and four to open the second half.

Halftime notes: West Virginia leads despite committing 15 fouls. (State was whistled for nine.) … Staten didn’t take many shots early but got hot in transition and closed the half with 10 points and four assists. Paige scored nine, including a two-handed dunk off a feed from Phillip. He also had a tip-in over a much taller Wolfpack front line. … WVU can’t shoot right? But it’s at 50 percent through the first half. That’s only partially attributable to transition baskets, because WVU is 4-of-7 from 3-point range. State is shooting 47 percent, but couldn’t stomach 16 turnovers.

WVU leads 41-32 (halftime): A physics-defying buzzer-beating 3 by Carter put WVU up by nine at half. Seriously. He fired the damn thing from the corner and it somehow ricocheted off the top edge of the backboard. (Stephen Hawking couldn’t explain the math on that one.) … Just 2:17 before the break, Lacey picked up his third foul on a charge drawn by Devin Williams. The Wolfpack’s top scorer went to the bench with a 1-for-3 opening half. … All the news wasn’t positive for WVU, because Staten also picked up his second foul moments later. Both were offensive end. Neither involved an ounce of contact. Tremendous stuntman-style flopping by Cat Barber.

WVU leads 30-20 (3:52 first half): The Wolfpack looks careless, having committed 14 turnovers. Ralston made one by leapiung for a 3-point shot, rethinking it in midair, and then dumping a pass into the teeth of the WVU defense. … Jaysean Paige seems to be embracing this sixth-man role. He’s showing some fire. … N.C. State’s Trevor Lacey also picked up his second foul.

WVU leads 24-18 (6:53 first half): With the teams huddling for a media timeout, Huggins gets T’d up. Didn’t look like the planned kind, because Huggs stalked toward the ref before Larry Harrison screened off the head coach. (Coming out of the timeout, Huggs mocked the ref by clapping a bit.) The Mountaineers played some inspired hoops after that, going on a 6-0 run, as N.C. State began coughing up the ball repeatedly.

N.C. State leads 11-10 (11:44 first half): WVU’s press started giving N.C. State a little trouble (witness Abdul-Malik Abu trying to get away with a head-high dribble.

N.C. State leads 8-4 (15:31 first half): Gary Browne made his first start of the season, in place of Jaysean Paige. … Jonathan Holton, shooting 12 percent on 3s this season, missed from straightaway—unguarded. Huggs looked down at his assistants and simply shrugged. … Nate Adrian entered with a flurry, creating a steal and a diving tip on a loose ball, but then committed two fouls in 40 seconds. … The Pack starts 2-of-2 from 3-point range, one of those by Ralston Turner, who hit eight in his previous game.

— The Garden’s lower bowl is mostly full, and it looks like a 60-40 split in favor of West Virginia fans.

— While the Mountaineers (9-1) are only a point away from being undefeated, their first semester won’t be a success unless they win in the Big Apple and handle Monday’s game against Wofford. Likewise, N.C. State (9-2), which lost to Wofford last week, needs to polish up its nonleague resume if Mark Gottfried’s crew expects to make a fourth consecutive NCAA tournament.

— Juwan Staten, presumably the Big 12’s best point guard, may not face one all season who’s quicker than N.C. State’s Cat Barber, a 2013 McDonald’s All-American who’s putting up 11.5 points and 3.9 assists per game. And it’s not often that we focus on rebounding when comparing point guards, but Barber’s pulling down 4.1 per game and Staten is grabbing only 2.6 (three off last year’s pace). So watch those long caroms off 3-point misses.

— Bob Huggins dropped heavy pregame praise on Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner, the Wolfpack’s twin gunners who began their careers in the SEC: “Their two wings are certainly the two most talented wings we’ve played so far and maybe the most talented we’ll play all year. They’re both great shot-makers. They’ll present a problem for us.”







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