Hurricanes Top West Virginia In Conference Opener
Jan. 5, 2000
MIAMI (AP) – Getting the ball wasn’t the problem for West Virginia.
Doing something with it was, as Miami forced 26 turnovers Wednesday on itsway to a 66-58 victory over the Mountaineers in both teams’ Big East opener.
Miami (8-5, 1-0) committed just 11 turnovers to offset West Virginia’s 44-23rebounding advantage and help snap the Mountaineers’ four-game winning streak.
Johnny Hemsley paced Miami with 23 points, while senior point guard VernonJennings supplied 14 points, eight assists and seven steals. Mario Bland added12 points.
“It’s a huge win because we want to have momentum going against SyracuseSaturday,” Hemsley said. “We wanted to get off to a good start.”
Lionel Armstead led West Virginia (7-4, 0-1) with 14 points and Marcus Goreeadded 11 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Tim Lyles had seven turnoversand was 3-of-10 shooting in a shaky conference debut.
“That was a pretty sloppy game,” West Virginia coach Gale Catlett said.”When we were down 48-46 I thought we had a good chance to win the game, butthe next three times we didn’t even get a shot at the basket.”
Armstead hit back-to-back jumpers, including a 3-pointer, to bring WestVirginia to within three points at 52-49 with 4:25 left.
Elton Tyler sank two free throws as West Virginia continued to turn the ballover down the stretch. Jennings banked in a 15-footer, and following anoffensive foul by the Mountaineers, Hemsley hit a short baseline jumper to giveMiami a secure 58-49 lead with 2:37 remaining.
The 26 turnovers forced was a season-best for Miami and 13 steals tied aseason high.
“The Big East is a whole new season and it feels good to be 1-0,” saidJennings, whose seven steals established a career high and were just two offtying the school record.
Bland scored four points of Miami’s 10-2 spurt for a 50-44 lead with 6:45remaining.
Goree scored five straight points on an offensive rebound putback and3-point shot to give West Virginia a 42-40 lead with 11 minutes left, its firstedge since 7-6.
Lyles drained a 3-pointer to cap off a 12-2 Mountaineers’ run early in thesecond half to cut Miami’s 11-point lead to 38-37.
Miami led 31-25 at halftime.
“This was probably our best defensive effort,” Miami coach LeonardHamilton said. “I’m proud of the way my kids had a concerted effort tocommunicate and fight off screens.”
