Box Score
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - As the two coaches chatted during Monday night's pregame warmups, first-year Bluefield State coach Jimmy Voight seemed to sense a golden opportunity - despite his team's 1-15 record.
In the conversation with University of Charleston coach Mark Downey, Voight noted that the Big Blues had lost four January road games by four points or fewer and hinted that they may be poised for a breakthrough.
"You could almost hear it in his voice like they were excited to play us,'' Downey recalled, "because they just felt like they should have won a couple of those games. He said, 'We're so close. We're so close. We just don't know how to win.'''
And sure enough, Bluefield State came through with a 68-52 victory over the Golden Eagles in Bluefield and produced first-half statistics that almost defy credibility.
In hurrying out to a 31-18 halftime lead, the Big Blues shot 11-for-18 (61.1 percent) from the field and 4-for-6 from 3-point distance and limited the Golden Eagles to 4-for-27 (14.8 percent) and 0-for-9 on 3-point tries.
"It was not very good, not very good,'' said Downey. "I don't know what word to use for it. In the second half we played better, we got back in the game and we forced some turnovers, but we were behind, so we had to press some and try to make things happen, and we gave up a lot of layups late in the game. For as badly as we played in the first half, we had our chances. But we didn't finish or we didn't make shots or we missed free throws or whatever.''
The Golden Eagles (7-10, 5-8 West Virginia Conference) worked their way back into contention in the second half and shot a bit more respectably but nevertheless finished at 17-for-57 (29.8 percent) against the Blues' tight zone.
"We simply have to recruit shooters,'' said Downey.
Bluefield State (2-15, 2-11) continued to shoot well and totaled 23-for-39 (59.0 percent) for the game.
The Big Blues apparently were due for a victory after losing road games to Concord by two points, West Virginia Wesleyan by four, Glenville by one and Bluefield College by three.
"They thought they could have won all four of those road games, and I know Coach Voight was probably telling those guys that they had Charleston coming to town,'' said the UC coach. "They've been struggling, and this was the game they could get. And they came out firing, made shots early, got some confidence and packed in a zone.''
To make matters worse for UC, 6-foot-8 senior Ibrahim Marone, who has battled an ankle injury all season, could barely run and contributed just one rebound and no points in four minutes. He entered the game averaging 8.1 points and 4.0 rebounds and shooting 67.4 percent.
"[Marone] just couldn't play. He was hurt,'' said Downey. "His ankle was really bothering him last night. He couldn't run. He just couldn't go. John White played pretty well, but other than that, we didn't get much from anybody. We just weren't very good.''
