For now on I am referring junior guard Alex Ruoff as the rainmaker. He made it rain on the Marquette Golden Eagles with 4 second half 3-pointers. Three of those came at a crucial juncture when WVU couldn’t make their one-plus-one opportunities while barely taking the lead. Once again Rainmaker saved the day as the West Virginia Mountaineers defeated 10th ranked Marquette 79-64. Joe Alexander and Rainmaker scored 19 points each.
The ‘Eers got off to a hot start with an 8-2 lead at the 16:16 mark. Led by Da’Sean Butler’s 11 points they built themselves a 10 point lead at 21-11 with just under 10 minutes left. Unfornutely, once again, Butler committed the usual 2 1st half fouls. That brought West Virginia in a scoreless funk for almost 6 minutes while the Golden Eagles clawed back with 12 unanswered points to take the lead for the first time at 23-21 with 4:27 remaining in the first half. WVU answered back with a nice finger roll and 1 by Alexander as they retook the lead at 27-23 with 2:34 left and held on for a 29-28 halftime lead.
The ‘Eers got off to a hot start once again in the second half scoring the first 7 points capped off by Rainmaker’s 3-point shot to take a 36-28 lead with 18:12 left in regulation. The Golden Eagles once again countered back scoring 8 unanswered points to tie the game at 36 with 16:30 left. The two teams threw counter punches at each other looking to see who was on the ropes. Joe Mazzulla’s driving lay-up gave WVU a 47-43 lead with 12:41 left only to be answered by a wide open Lazar Hayward 3-pt spot. Joe Alexander’s wide open 18 footer from the middle answered that punch to lead 49-46. WVU failed to capatize on all three one-plus-one opportunity but I say again Rainmaker saved the day as he hit a huge 3-point shot from the left baseline to take a 56-50 lead with 6:28 left in regulation. Hayward then hit a three to cut the lead to 58-53. Rainmaker, off a Darris Nichols drive and kick, makes it rain again from the same spot to take a 61-53 with 4:25 left. Then Rainmaker hit one more three for good measure to take the biggest lead of the game at 66-54 with 3:01 left. WVU coasted from there hitting 13 of 14 foul shots the rest of the way.
Hopefully the win will carry the Mountaineers back to the Top 25 spot. We’ll see tomorrow. My suggestion for the students next Sunday against the ‘Cuse at the Coliseum will be to bring an umbrella to the game or else you will get drenched by the Rainmaker. WVU’s next game will be on Thursday night as they go to Freedom Hall to face the Louisville Cardinals. Should be an exciting Big East matchup yet again. Congrats and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Mountaineers!
(photo by Justin/BGN)
