NEW YORK - It was hard for anyone who showed up early at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night not to notice Kyle McAlarney. The Notre Dame sharpshooter was firing up shots from behind the NBA's version of the 3-point line over and over again, missing almost nothing.
NEW YORK - It was hard for anyone who showed up early at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night not to notice Kyle McAlarney. The Notre Dame sharpshooter was firing up shots from behind the NBA's version of the 3-point line over and over again, missing almost nothing.
Perhaps he should have saved a few for after the lights came on. More to the point, maybe he should have had someone shadowing him to provide an idea of what was to come - West Virginia's 74-62 win over the Irish in the Big East tournament.
"You know, sometimes I think it's better when I don't shoot well in pregame,'' McAlarney said later. "But the main thing is you have to credit West Virginia. The job they did on us defensively was as good as you'll see.''
Indeed, once the game began West Virginia played defense and rebounded as well as it has all season, which is saying something for a team that counts those facets of the game as their best.
Harassing Notre Dame into missing 15 of its first 17 shots and getting its own clutch - if somewhat erratic - shooting at the other end, the Mountaineers buried the Irish early, running up a quick 20-point lead.
The win improved the Mountaineers to 22-10, further solidified their standing in the NCAA tournament and sets up a third match of the season with old rival and No. 2 Pitt (28-3), which as the tournament's second seed received one of four double byes into today's quarterfinal round. Today's 7 p.m. game will be televised by ESPN.
The Panthers beat West Virginia twice during the regular season - 79-67 in Morgantown and 70-59 at Pitt.
Notre Dame, which beat Rutgers Tuesday night to earn its way into the game with West Virginia, lost to the Mountaineers for the second time this season. WVU won 79-68 in Morgantown three weeks ago. It also likely ended any remaining hopes Notre Dame had of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament.
After leading by 20 points in both halves and as late as the 11-minute mark, West Virginia was almost taken to the wire by the Irish, but that early-game bulge, fashioned through defense, proved too much to overcome.
Until finally forcing the issue in the second half, Notre Dame's 6-foot-8, 240-pound former Big East player of the year Luke Harangody had just four points and four rebounds through the first 22 minutes. McAlarney could barely get off a shot in the first half, much less make any.
"When they make perimeter shots, it's so hard because they spread you so much and Luke is so good down there,'' West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
So the Mountaineers simply didn't allow Notre Dame to take open shots, and it set the tone.
Of course, playing that kind of exhausting, aggressive defense for 40 minutes is nearly impossible. Notre Dame finally began whittling away mainly by getting a few timely 3-pointers from Ryan Ayers and McAlarney and by finally forcing the ball into Harangody, who scored 17 of the Irish's 19 points in one stretch as they whittled the margin to seven, 66-59, with 3:01 to go.
But Alex Ruoff made a layup and a free throw to push the margin back to 10 and Notre Dame never seriously threatened again.
Ruoff (25 points) and Da'Sean Butler (20) led West Virginia in scoring, but Devin Ebanks and Darryl "Truck'' Bryant also came up big, Ebanks with 18 rebounds and five assists and Bryant with 17 points. Bryant and Ruoff were a combined 8-for-14 on 3-pointers and WVU held a huge 52-32 rebounding edge.
After getting 17 offensive rebounds in the win over Notre Dame in Morgantown, West Virginia one-upped that with 20 Wednesday night, which more than offset the Mountaineers' 36 percent shooting from the floor.
Harangody finished with 27 points for Notre Dame and McAlarney 17.
West Virginia shot less than 40 percent for the 10th time this season, winning only the third of those because the ones the Mountaineers made were big ones. Ruoff and Bryant combined for six of their eight 3-pointers in the early going, none bigger than Bryant's.
"You have to play the percentages and Ruoff and Butler are their two best shooters,'' McAlarney said. "We gave Bryant some space a few times and he made the shots.''
McAlarney, though, didn't, at least not until it was almost too late. At one point late in the game, as Notre Dame was chipping away at WVU's lead, the 6-foot senior pulled up from roughly 27 feet, way beyond that NBA line, and let one go. It missed.
Ruoff just shook his head at that one.
"Sometimes it's just amazing to watch where he shoots from,'' Ruoff said. "If it goes, congratulations, that's a great shot. If not, it's a great stop."
In the end, that was the difference for the Mountaineers - going back to that smothering defense and making stops. After getting it to 66-59 with three minutes to play, the Irish didn't get another field goal.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
NEW YORK - It was hard for anyone who showed up early at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night not to notice Kyle McAlarney. The Notre Dame sharpshooter was firing up shots from behind the NBA's version of the 3-point line over and over again, missing almost nothing.
Perhaps he should have saved a few for after the lights came on. More to the point, maybe he should have had someone shadowing him to provide an idea of what was to come - West Virginia's 74-62 win over the Irish in the Big East tournament.
"You know, sometimes I think it's better when I don't shoot well in pregame,'' McAlarney said later. "But the main thing is you have to credit West Virginia. The job they did on us defensively was as good as you'll see.''
Indeed, once the game began West Virginia played defense and rebounded as well as it has all season, which is saying something for a team that counts those facets of the game as their best.
Harassing Notre Dame into missing 15 of its first 17 shots and getting its own clutch - if somewhat erratic - shooting at the other end, the Mountaineers buried the Irish early, running up a quick 20-point lead.
The win improved the Mountaineers to 22-10, further solidified their standing in the NCAA tournament and sets up a third match of the season with old rival and No. 2 Pitt (28-3), which as the tournament's second seed received one of four double byes into today's quarterfinal round. Today's 7 p.m. game will be televised by ESPN.
The Panthers beat West Virginia twice during the regular season - 79-67 in Morgantown and 70-59 at Pitt.
Notre Dame, which beat Rutgers Tuesday night to earn its way into the game with West Virginia, lost to the Mountaineers for the second time this season. WVU won 79-68 in Morgantown three weeks ago. It also likely ended any remaining hopes Notre Dame had of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament.
After leading by 20 points in both halves and as late as the 11-minute mark, West Virginia was almost taken to the wire by the Irish, but that early-game bulge, fashioned through defense, proved too much to overcome.
Until finally forcing the issue in the second half, Notre Dame's 6-foot-8, 240-pound former Big East player of the year Luke Harangody had just four points and four rebounds through the first 22 minutes. McAlarney could barely get off a shot in the first half, much less make any.
"When they make perimeter shots, it's so hard because they spread you so much and Luke is so good down there,'' West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
So the Mountaineers simply didn't allow Notre Dame to take open shots, and it set the tone.
Of course, playing that kind of exhausting, aggressive defense for 40 minutes is nearly impossible. Notre Dame finally began whittling away mainly by getting a few timely 3-pointers from Ryan Ayers and McAlarney and by finally forcing the ball into Harangody, who scored 17 of the Irish's 19 points in one stretch as they whittled the margin to seven, 66-59, with 3:01 to go.
But Alex Ruoff made a layup and a free throw to push the margin back to 10 and Notre Dame never seriously threatened again.
Ruoff (25 points) and Da'Sean Butler (20) led West Virginia in scoring, but Devin Ebanks and Darryl "Truck'' Bryant also came up big, Ebanks with 18 rebounds and five assists and Bryant with 17 points. Bryant and Ruoff were a combined 8-for-14 on 3-pointers and WVU held a huge 52-32 rebounding edge.
After getting 17 offensive rebounds in the win over Notre Dame in Morgantown, West Virginia one-upped that with 20 Wednesday night, which more than offset the Mountaineers' 36 percent shooting from the floor.
Harangody finished with 27 points for Notre Dame and McAlarney 17.
West Virginia shot less than 40 percent for the 10th time this season, winning only the third of those because the ones the Mountaineers made were big ones. Ruoff and Bryant combined for six of their eight 3-pointers in the early going, none bigger than Bryant's.
"You have to play the percentages and Ruoff and Butler are their two best shooters,'' McAlarney said. "We gave Bryant some space a few times and he made the shots.''
McAlarney, though, didn't, at least not until it was almost too late. At one point late in the game, as Notre Dame was chipping away at WVU's lead, the 6-foot senior pulled up from roughly 27 feet, way beyond that NBA line, and let one go. It missed.
Ruoff just shook his head at that one.
"Sometimes it's just amazing to watch where he shoots from,'' Ruoff said. "If it goes, congratulations, that's a great shot. If not, it's a great stop."
In the end, that was the difference for the Mountaineers - going back to that smothering defense and making stops. After getting it to 66-59 with three minutes to play, the Irish didn't get another field goal.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
Notre Dame (18-14)
Player FG FT R A P
Zach Hillesland 0-2 0-0 5 1 0
Like Harangody 11-22 4-5 8 1 27
Tory Jackson 2-9 1-2 2 2 6
Kyle McAlarney 5-14 3-4 1 5 17
Ryan Ayers 4-7 0-0 3 1 11
Tyrone Nash 0-1 1-2 7 2 1
Jonathon Peoples 0-2 0-0 1 0 0
Luke Zeller 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 22-58 9-13 27 12 62
WEST VIRGINIA (22-10)
Player FG FT R A P
Da'Sean Butler 6-17 5-5 5 1 20
Devin Ebanks 3-11 1-2 18 5 7
Wellington Smith 0-2 1-2 7 2 1
Alex Ruoff 6-13 9-11 2 3 25
Darryl Bryant 6-9 1-2 1 4 17
Cam Thoroughman 0-1 0-0 3 0 0
Kevin Jones 1-10 0-1 7 1 2
John Flowers 1-1 0-0 1 2 2
Totals 23-64 17-23 44 18 74
Halftime: WVU 36-18. 3-point goals: ND 9-22 (Harangody 1-2, Jackson 1-4, McAlarney 4-9, Ayers 3-6, Peoples 0-1); WVU 11-20 (Butler 3-5, Ebanks 0-1, Ruoff 4-7, Bryant 4-7). Fouled out: McAlarney. Technicals: Notre Dame (team). Attendance: 19,375.
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Oh, I agree. There were some really ticky-tacky fouls called that were only called due to the ND coach getting T'd up. Like I said earlier, I could see a few calls to "make up" for what may have been a disparity earlier on. However, Notre Dame ended up getting 5 or 6 calls and about 4 blocking calls and two were most definitely charges.
The one blocking call on Butler was definitely a charge. The ND big guy lowered his shoulder and bulled right into Butler. You could see Butler was a little slow getting up as if he took a tough shot. It certainly wasn't a pratt fall by Butler.
Like Way2Old states, the good guys one though. So, let's hope WVU can win this one. One hour til game time!