Joe Alexander scored a career-high 32 points for the West Virginia Mountaineers. Along with his 10 rebounds, Alexander arguably had one of the best individual performances a Mountaineer basketball player had in quite sometime. The same can’t be said for the rest of the team whose shoddy transition defense caused Husky point guard A.J. Price to have a career game of his own as UCONN withheld a furious Mountaineer comeback to win 79-71. Price scored 24 points on five three pointers. Frontcourt beast Jeff Adrien had another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. 7′3″ Tanzanian Devil Hasheem Thabeet was plagued by foul trouble early and scored only 2 points with 2 rebounds in only 18 minutes. For a brief time on the court, Thabeet did have 3 blocks and altered a few of the Mountaineer shots as the Eers shot only 41 percent from the field. Take away Alexander’s 14 for 24 performance from the field plus making all four foul shots and WVU would’ve shot a horrid 32 percent not to mention 2 of 7 from the foul line.

At first glance, it appeared WVU was ready to play as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead on a three by The Rainmaker. UCONN decided to wake up and play basketball as they out-scored WVU 19-6 capped off by a dunk from Stanley Robinson to take a 23-16 lead. The Huskies would not let up as they went on another spurt, this time a 14-2 run to give UCONN a huge 37-23 lead. The Huskies cruised to a 12-point halftime lead.

Price came out firing in the second half making the first two three-pointers of the second half. UCONN was holding steady as the half wore on. When Doug Wiggins made a three off a Price dribble, drive, and kick to make it 60-43 with 11:31 left it appeared all but over for the Mountaineers. Don’t tell that to freshman John Flowers. For the next minute Flowers scored five points to re-energized the Mounties on a warpath….finally. The Eers went on a 20-6 run to cut the deficit to 66-63 with 4:22 left. But of course the 17-point deficit was too much to overcome as a three-point dagger by Robinson ruined any comeback hopes. The Mountaineers are now unsuccessful in their seven tries to defeat UCONN at Connecticut.

Well if there’s one game that is a absolute, positive, MUST WIN it is none other than the Pittsburgh Panthers. What better setting that on an ESPN Big Monday audience Monday night. WVU needs to have 14K strong and loud for two hours straight. All you lower-level people that don’t care to show up give them away if you have to. Students start showing up at 8 in the morning to find the best front-row seat in the house. We must win this game to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. I’m tired of the Panthers breaking our hearts every time the Panthers face us. It’s our turn now. LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!