Jan 7, 2003
By MATT STANMYRE
Associated Press Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Drew Schifino scored 20 points and Kevin Pittsnogleadded 19 to lead West Virginia to a 68-63 victory over Miami Tuesday in bothteams’ Big East conference opener.
West Virginia (9-3, 1-0), coming off a 75-45 loss at St. Louis Saturday,held Miami’s two leading scorers, James Jones and Darius Rice, to a combined11-of-35 shooting. The Mountaineers, who have routinely been dominated byopponents in the rebounding category, were only outrebounded 40-36 by Miami.
Miami (7-5, 0-1), coming off a 64-61 victory at North Carolina Saturday,shot just 24-of-63 for the game and committed 13 turnovers while recording onlyeight assists.
After trading baskets for most of the second half, West Virginia’s PatrickBeilein hit a 3-pointer that gave the Mountaineers some breathing room with a49-40 lead.
With 2:52 left, Pittsnogle hit a short jumper to give the Mountaineers theirlargest lead of the evening at 59-49.
Paulo Coelho hit an off-balance jumper for Miami with :48 left to cut WVU’slead to 63-58.
West Virginia then hit 5-of-6 free throws to give the Mountaineers theirfirst victory over Miami since the 1997-98 season.
Jones led Miami with 18 points and Rice had 15.