West Virginia bests Duquesne with a rally

PITTSBURGH (AP) — West Virginia coach Bob Huggins knew Ron Everhart when the Duquesne coach was an eager-to-learn high school player who sought Huggins’ attention during summer camps. Among the lessons taught: toughness and aggressiveness can be as important to winning as good shooting and playmaking.

Everhart probably didn’t know 30 years ago how Huggins’ philosophy might prove telling during a competitive game in which neither of the coaches’ teams shot well and toughness overcame inexperience.

Darryl Bryant scored 18 points and West Virginia withstood a 12-point deficit by holding Duquesne without a basket for 11 minutes and controlling the backboards to rally for a 68-63 victory Saturday night.

Bryant scored all but six of his points in the second half as the Mountaineers (7-2), playing without injured guards Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla, surged back to defeat Duquesne (5-3) for the sixth consecutive season.

Devin Eubanks had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Wellington Smith scored 12 and John Flowers had 10 rebounds as West Virginia outrebounded the Dukes 53-31, a major key during the Mountaineers’ second-half surge.

“When you miss that many, you’ve got to get used to going and getting them,” Huggins said. “We didn’t make any shots.”

The Mountaineers, bouncing back from a 68-65 loss to No. 23 Davidson, overcame some horrendous shooting at times — they were 3-of-23 from 3-point range — to hold off an undersized and freshman-laden Duquesne team that has played No. 3 Pittsburgh and No. 7 Duke among its last four games.

“We knew how physical it was going to be,” said Everhart, a former West Virginia high school player who first got to know Huggins when the Mountaineers coach played for his alma mater. “I’ve known coach (Huggins) long enough to know how tough it was going to be. A couple of rebounds we couldn’t get were as important as the shots we missed. We missed shots we’ve been making.”

Duquesne went without a basket from the 2:22 mark of the first half when B.J. Monteiro scored, during an 11-0 Dukes run that gave them a 33-21 lead, until Aaron Jackson hit a driving layup with 11:22 left.

West Virginia outscored Duquesne 27-6 while turning the 12-point deficit into a 48-39 advantage, then held on after Duquesne cut it to 60-58 on Jackson’s basket with a minute remaining.