Mountaineers whip Duke, Sweet 16 bound

Saturday, March 22, 2008

By Ron Musselman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press

Duke guard Greg Paulus walks off the court as West Virginia's Joe Mazzulla (3) and Cam Thoroughman celebrate the Mountaineers' victory in a second-round NCAA West Regional basketball game today in Washington D.C. West Virginia upset Duke 73-67.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- West Virginia is headed to the Sweet 16.

Joe Alexander scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the seventh-seeded Mountaineers rallied to upset second-seeded Duke, 73-67, today in the second round of the NCAA tournament's West Region at the Verizon Center.

West Virginia (26-10) trailed 34-29 at the intermission and 37-29 three minutes into the second half before ripping off an 18-3 run to take control of the game.

Despite being 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half, the Mountaineers got three in a row from Darris Nichols, Alex Ruoff and Alexander to break the game open at 47-40 with 11:43 left. Ruoff finished with 17 points and Joe Mazzulla added 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Gerald Henderson led Duke (28-6) with 18 points. The Blue Devils had barely survived a first-round upset by 15th-seeded Belmont Thursday night.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

First published on March 22, 2008 at 4:44 pm