Football
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Pittsnogle scores 17 as West Virginia holds off St. John's

NEW YORK -- Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey and West
Virginia almost didn't receive the wakeup call in the world's
most famous arena.

Pittsnogle scored 19 points and Gansey made four free throws in
the final 15 seconds as the No. 13 Mountaineers posted a 66-61
victory over St. John's at Madison Square Garden to remain the
only unbeaten team in the powerful Big East Conference.

"Anytime you play in Madison Square Garden, you want to play the
best (you can)," Gansey said. "You just try to play as hard as
you can. There's something about this arena that makes you play
better and I just think that's what it is.

"We enjoy coming here. It's just like a dream come true because
all the best players ever have played here."

On Wednesday, West Virginia (15-4, 6-0 Big East) had a
national-best 12-game winning streak snapped by intrastate rival
and heavy underdog Marshall, 58-52.

The Mountaineers seemed like they got the message, as they were
cruising Sunday at the Garden before stumbling and just
surviving a late rally in the final minutes.

"I think that (losing leads) is a pattern in college
basketball," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "Look at
Villanova yesterday. Villanova has a lot more scorers than we
do. ... We just didn't make them and the other team is charging
at you.

"I don't think we are alone. Maybe we lost a little bit of
aggressiveness. I thought we took a couple of shots where the
shot clock was too high for a road team."

St. John's cut an 18-point second-half deficit to 10 when West
Virginia went scoreless for a seven-minute span, but Pittsnogle
hit a 3-pointer to thwart a first comeback attempt for a 57-44
lead with four minutes left.

"Kevin hit the one big shot that we needed to make, the big
dagger," Beilein said. "I don't know if it's a characteristic of
our team. Nobody remembers if you're up by 16 and win by 24."

But St. John's roared back again. A three-point play by Daryll
Hill and a 3-pointer by Anthony Mason, Jr. cut the lead to 62-60
with 30 seconds left.

"I remember when Mason hit that three, I thought the roof was
going to explode," Gansey said. It's a dream come true to play
at Madison Square Garden and to come out with a victory that's
pretty special.

After Gansey missed two free throws three seconds later, Eugene
Lawrence came up short on a drive to the basket, and, after an
offensive rebound, Hill drove but had his pass picked off by
Gansey, who was fouled.

"Shoot, pass, it was in between. Maybe I should have shot it,
but I passed and they took it," Hill said. "I saw Eugene
cutting. It got deflected. Their hands are so active during
defense and they got it."

Gansey, who finished with 15 points, hit both free throws with
15 seconds left and added two more with three seconds to play
that capped the scoring.

"The fans were so loud even when I was at the foul line," Gansey
said. "That's what you dream about playing college basketball."

Lamont Hamilton had 18 points and 11 rebounds and Hill added 17
and five assists for the Red Storm (10-7, 3-4), who were
outscored, 10-3, from the arc but stayed in the game by
compiling a 49-25 advantage on the backboards. Hamilton had
five of St. John's 18 offensive rebounds.

"I was proud of my guys because we talked in the second half,
'just play with energy,'" St. John's coach Norm Roberts said.
"Play with energy, play hard and don't worry about what happens
and move on to the next play. And we did a great job of that.

"We have to make it a full court game. You don't want to play a
halfcourt game against West Virginia because when you have that
many guys that can shoot, even with a pretty good defensive
team, which I think we are, it's just so hard to guard them for
35 seconds and then they shoot a 30-footer."

Behind an unlikely source, West Virginia took a 36-25 lead at
the half. Junior forward Frank Young, whose career high
entering the game was three 3-pointers, matched that total in
the first 14 1/2 minutes.

The Mountaineers made eight 3-pointers to the Red Storm's one
and 38.5 percent (10-of-26) shooting overall in the first 20
minutes.

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