FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2009
#5 West Virginia Mountaineers (19-4) vs. #25 Pittsburgh Panthers (18-6)
The No. 5 West Virginia Mountaineers will hit the road to take on Big East foes the Pittsburgh Panthers at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh on Friday night.
Click Here for more Free Expert NCAA Basketball Picks
The two teams last met on Feb 3, with the Mountaineers running away with a 70-51 victory at Morgantown.
After wining six straight, No. 5 West Virginia fell to No. 4 Villanova 82-75 on Monday. Leading scorer Da’Sean Butler, who is averaging 17.3 points a game, recorded his worst performance in almost a month, netting just 2-of-12 from the field for 13 points. A far cry from the 33 points against Pitt last week, and the career-high 43 points he posted against the ‘Cats last season. Despite the loss Darryl Bryant led five Mountaineers in double figures with 15 points, followed by Devin Ebanks with 13, Chipola Junior College recruit Casey Mitchell with 12 and Kevin Jones with 11. West Virginia was held below 50 percent shooting for the 11th straight game, finishing the contest hitting 7 of 27 from 3-point range and 18 of 32 from the free-throw line. The Mountaineers has had to battle hard to maintain third place in the Big East and will need to get another string of wins together if they are going to make any attempt at a league title. The Mountaineers are yet to test 6-foot-9, 260 pound guard Deniz Kilicli. The Turkish born freshman, who has made just three appearances for a total of 24 minutes, adds much-needed depth to WVUs inside scoring and rebounding, Coach Bob Huggins is bringing him on slowly after sitting out a 20-game suspension.
Meanwhile, the No. 25 Panthers have pushed their win streak to two with a non-conference win over Robert Morris, 75-53 on Monday. Leading scorer Ashton Gibbs scored 20 points while Jermaine Dixon had 18 points and six rebounds in the win. Pitt was 10 of 22 from 3-point range, matching its season high in 3-pointers. The Panthers is currently 7-4 in the Big East, and sitting alone in fifth place. Pitt didn’t look good when it went to Morgantown earlier this month and will look to avenge the thumping they received. The Panthers own a 5-0 record vs. top-5 ranked teams played at the Petersen Events Center, and is 10-4 vs. top-25 teams in the arena since it opened in 2002-03.
If Pitt can build on the effort that kept them in the game early, rather than the one that caused them to fall apart late in their previous meeting against the Mountaineers, they could very well snatch a much needed win.
The odds makers have the Mountaineers as –3-point favorites with a game total of 127.
I expect this to be a tough battle with Pitt edging out a close one at home.
Click Here for more Free Expert NCAA Basketball Picks
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.