I know West Virginia and Marshall are bitter rivals but 52 fouls combined?!?!?!?!? I’d say about 80 percent of them were in the second half. Those fouls committed by WVU as well as their terrible foul shooting nearly gave Marshall the game. Thankfully Da’Sean Butler’s 14 footer with 5.6 seconds left overcame his horrible foul-shooting as WVU wins 66-64 and sweeps the Capital Classic doubleheader. West Virginia improves their record to 15-4 while The Herd falls to 10-7. Butler, who led the Eers with 18 points under 5 of 13 foul shooting, saved the day while the WVU D was good enough to not let Marshall throw up a potential game-winner. West Virginia as a team, was 11 of 28 foul shooting. WOW! The Rainmaker Alex Ruoff made his mark as he scored 11 points with a career-high 11 rebounds.

The game began with Da’Sean Butler scoring 7 points in the first four minutes. Then foul trouble became a problem for the Mountaineers as starters John Flowers and Butler each claimed two fouls and a spot on the bench. Senior Jaime Smalligan delivered his ineffective three minutes and claimed a spot on the bench as well not playing another minute the rest of the night.

As Marshall was shooting some foul shots who do I see coming to the scorers table? Is it? No way am I sure? Wait it is! It really is Joe Alexander coming into the game! From then on, his presence sparked a 13-2 run thanks in large part to The Rainmaker hitting some treys. This gave WVU a 21-8 lead. As I stated in the preview whoever could make the three-point shot would have the an upper-hand in the game. West Virginia shot 7 of 17 from the three.

As WVU was scoring, the Herd had trouble swishing the rims as they started the game 2 for 16. Then the game got physical as Wellington Smith got T’d up and he went to the bench. This gave Jarrett Brown and seldom-played Cam Throughman some time on the court. Their presence and fresh energy sparked the Eers and prevented the Herd from coming back. Still, West Virginia had many opportunities to deliver the knockout punch, leading as much as 14, but turnovers and the fact that Marshall snapped out of their shooting slump prevented that from happening. West Virginia was still up by double-digits at the half with the score of 37-27.

The second half early on seemed like a stalemate at times. West Virginia continued to slog along while the Herd couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from three. There were some worthy highlights in the first part of the half. Alexander threw down a one-handed jam to remain in a double-digit lead. A few possessions later Wellington Smith was open down the baseline then he took off and threw down the two-handed flush. That gave the Eers a 48-36 lead with 12:20 left in regulation.

The second part of the second half was another story. West Virginia’s foul trouble continue to catch up to the Eers as Darris Nichols, Alexander, and Smith each got to the dreaded 4 foul mark. It seemed like every time Marshall came down the court the refs kept blowing the whistle. The crummy calls made this fan nervous especially with Mazzulla handing the ball. My fears starting to grow as Marshall hit a trey to cut the lead to 5 with 6:30 left. Smith made a huge shot on the baseline to take it back up to 7. The refs just couldn’t stop blowing the whistle as Mark Dorris was the first to foul out, then came Smith, who’s the next to foul out? While the refs shut down all tempo of the game this got Marshall in it once again. Guard Darryl Merthie stroked a trey to cut the Mountaineer lead again to five at 61-56. Tyler Wilkerson was the next to go yet Butler couldn’t make the foul shots consistently demoralizing, in Coach Huggs words, the team even more. My breathing was getting heavier as Matt Walls hit a trey to cut it to three at 62-59 with 3:30 left. As WVU continued to struggle at the line, Marshall made a put-back that was questionable at best. That cut the lead to two!

Then all heck broke loose with 53 seconds left. Butler made the first but missed the second. Flowers got the huge rebound but got hacked and that foul disqualified Tirrell Baines. Flowers, a 40 percent foul shooter, bricked his two attempts and Marshall had the ball. With time on the shot clock running down Merthie attempted the three in front of the Marshall bench and believe or not got fouled by Flowers who fouled out. He calmly made all three shots to tie the game with 31 seconds left. Butler, in WVU’s final possession, was cool as a cucumber hitting the J to save the day.

I’m glad we won this game. I don’t care if it was two that’s what a rivalry game is all about. WHEW! West Virginia will spend their next practice foul shooting and defending the high screen then face Roy Hibbert and the Georgetown Hoyas Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum. This sellout crowd will give the Hoyas all they can handle as WVU will be all jacked-up for this one. Don’t forget there’s a women game as well. They will also play the Hoyas with the tipoff at 2:00pm. I’m sure glad to see Joe Alexander back. Thank God I don’t have to see Marshall until September 27th where WVU surely will get a better result then what happened tonight. Congrats and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!