Men's Basketball
Yellow Jackets Rock UC
February 17, 2006
By Nick Scala
Staff writer, The Charleston Gazette
The raucous noise coming out of the visitors’ locker room was unmistakable. So was the cause of it.
"Any time you can win by [18] points in Eddie King Gym, that’s something to be happy about," West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore said after the Yellow Jackets knocked off the University of Charleston 85-67 Thursday night.
"That’s two straight on the road against some of the top teams in the conference. We’ve got a little bit of our momentum back."
State (20-5 overall, 12-3 in the West Virginia Conference) has plenty of reasons to be happy. The Jackets have won five of their last six, with the only hiccup being a home loss to Salem International last Thursday. State made up for that this week with road wins against teams in the top half of the WVC standings, at West Liberty Monday and at UC Thursday.
The latter win completes a regular-season sweep by State over the Golden Eagles (15-9, 9-6), who have lost five of their last seven.
"They’re playing with confidence," UC coach Greg White said of the Jackets, "and we don’t have any confidence right now. It takes five guys playing well and jelling to compete with a team like State, and we’re not doing that."
State point guard Chris Dunn had team-highs of 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Ted Scott added 14 points, Veselin Veselinov scored 12 and Mike Brown contributed 11 off the bench for the Jackets.
Notable for his absence at the top State’s statistical ledger was Tony Cornett, who came in averaging 15.3 points. Cornett scored just nine against UC, with eight of them coming in the second half. In the first half, the 6-5 junior forward was 0-for-5 from the floor.
With his shooting off, Cornett made sure to have an impact on the other end of the floor.
"Once I realized my shot wasn’t falling, I concentrated on defense," he said. "I was matched up with [UC’s Marquis] Brooks, and I concentrated on stopping him."
And Cornett stopped him cold. Brooks, UC’s leading scorer on the year with 14.9 points per game, finished with just two points — both on free throws — and was 0-for-11 from the floor. That was a major part of the defensive effort that held UC to 37.9 shooting (22-for-58).
UC looked like the more confident team at the start, jumping out to a 7-0 lead. But the Eagles went nearly nine minutes without a field goal midway through the first half, allowing State to get back in it.
Then, when the Jackets went on a 14-0 three-minute run late in the half, they seized control and didn’t let go. Oddly enough, Cornett was on the bench in foul trouble for the entirety of that run, and the Jackets took a 37-24 lead into halftime.
"That’s an indication of the depth of our team," Poore said. "When our guys play hard, which they pretty much always do, and when they play together, we’re tough to beat."
State’s lead ballooned to as many as 22 points in the second half, but a 10-2 UC run sliced the advantage to 14, 69-55, with 5:44 left in the second half.
Cornett quickly pulled the plug on the Eagles’ momentum, though, scoring his first bucket of the night as part of a three-point play and taking a pass from Dunn for a layup to restore State’s comfortable margin. Cornett capped it off on the other end by taking a charge, and the Jackets were never threatened again.
"That was a great team effort on our part," Cornett said. "When you’ve got five guys going all out, with skill, you’re hard to beat."
Robert Siwo led UC with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Austin Weatherington added 11 points and Robert Strickland scored 10.
State’s tough week continues Saturday with a home game against Concord (14-10, 10-5). UC visits WVU Tech (5-9, 9-14) the same night.