BOX SCORE

	Devin Ebanks

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two critical steals by sophomore Devin Ebanks in the final minute allowed West Virginia to hold on to a 73-66 victory over Texas A&M in the semifinals of the 76 Classic on Friday afternoon at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif.

The victory puts the Mountaineers (4-0) in the championship game of one of the nation’s most competitive early-season tournaments. West Virginia faces the winner of the Minnesota-Portland matchup on Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

"I didn’t think we did a very good job until the end of the first half of meeting their physicality," coach Bob Huggins said. "They were very physical with screens and rebounding the basketball. I thought at the end of the first half we stepped it up and did much better in the second half."

Ebanks had a triumphant season debut for West Virginia, scoring 14 points on 4 of 6 shooting with a team-high nine rebounds. With WVU clinging to a 68-63 lead, Ebanks stripped guard Donald Sloan at midcourt and broke away for a dunk and a foul. He made the free throw to give the Mountaineers a 71-63 lead.

"He’s still a little rusty," Huggins said of Ebanks. "We still have to get the rust off him. It’s nice to have him back, that’s for sure."

After A&M's Derrick Roland cut the lead to 71-66 on a 3-point play and Truck Bryant committed a turnover, Ebanks once again stole the ball from Sloan and was fouled going to the basket. Ebanks made two more free throws to seal the victory.

After getting in early foul trouble in the first half, Da'Sean Butler found his rhythm in the game’s final 20 minutes. The Newark, N.J., native posted 17 points on 5 of 11 shooting and registered five rebounds and five assists, scoring 15 second-half points as WVU outscored the Aggies (4-1) 41-32.

WVU shot 51.1 percent from the field, the second straight game it has made more than half of its field goal attempts. The Mountaineers enjoyed another solid performance from beyond the arc, making eight 3-pointers while shooting 40 percent overall.

Kevin Jones notched 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting. Jones hit a key 3-pointer with 3:47 left to give WVU a 10-point lead, and tallied five boards in 29 minutes.

For the first time this season, West Virginia was outrebounded as the Aggies held a 30-23 advantage on the glass. WVU did show its potential from the free throw line, going 17 of 22.

A key 15-3 run in the second half allowed the Mountaineers to take the first double-digit lead of the afternoon. Joe Mazzulla came in and scored on a breakaway layup to ignite the run, and Butler nailed consecutive 3-pointers from the top of the key and followed with two free throws as West Virginia took a 56-45 with 11:47 remaining.

WVU started off the second half well offensively, scoring the first four points to take a 36-34 lead with 18:34 left in the game. Jones then hit a 3-pointer from the corner to put West Virginia ahead 41-38, but the Aggies came back with two quick baskets to regain their lead at 42-41.

In what was expected to be a defensive battle, both teams started off red hot from the field with the score tied at 11-11 by the first media timeout. Freshman Dalton Pepper scored five quick points on a layup and a 3-pointer from the right baseline.

Ebanks entered the game following the first media timeout and proceeded to score WVU’s next six points. The preseason Naismith Award candidate hit his first shot on a turnaround baseline jumper, then registered another basket on a pull-up shot from the baseline. He added two more points on a pair of free throws to give WVU a 17-13 advantage.

Butler’s finish underneath the basket gave WVU a 21-18 lead with 9:41 left in the first half, but Texas A&M went on a 13-4 run to pull ahead 31-25. Wellington Smith helped minimize the damage with two 3-pointers within a 47-second span, and the Mountaineers went into halftime trailing 34-32.

Sloan and guard B.J. Holmes had 18 points apiece to lead the Aggies.

The Mountaineers will now enjoy Saturday off before wrapping up the weekend on Sunday evening.

"First of all, we’re excited about going and watching Mountaineer football," Huggins added. "Hopefully Coach Stew and the boys have the game well in hand, and we can go over (to the Convention Center) knowing the Mountaineers are winning and scout whatever team we’re playing Sunday evening."

	Posted by Todd on 11/27/09 at 10:51 PM WVU plays very physical and when your not in confrence they call touch fouls and they do not let you play tough physical big east basketball.
	Posted by texas transplant on 11/28/09 at 12:32 AM A great effort! Let's go alll the way! Best of luck, Mounties!
	Posted by Shockey on 11/28/09 at 7:18 AM I t was a great day to be a Mountaineer. Basketball team beat A&M and football team bet Pit. Awesome, very proud to be an alumni. Continued success to both programs and let's go Mountaineers.
	Posted by Mountaineer in Connecticut on 11/28/09 at 8:54 AM What a great day to be a Mountaineer. After graduating from WVU in 1979 I spent the next 26 years near Houston, Texas. You see Jackie Sherrill left Pitt and went to College Station in 1982. A&M was and still is so desparate that they fired Tom Wilson after posting a 7-4 record. Sherrill took them to several Cotton Bowls and won but by 1988 they were on a two year probation. During his time there every team in the Southwest Conference except Rice and Baylor ended up on probation. The word is that Sherrill was turning everyone in so the rest of the conference went after him. The Aggies were so arrogant during his years. You see, I hate the Aggies as almost as much as I hate Pitt, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. To beat Texas A&M and Pitt in the same day. I am in heaven!!!! We have to beat Rutgers. Remember a loyal Mountaineer spend much more time HATING Pitt than trashing WVU players and coaches.
	Posted by John Class of '74 on 11/28/09 at 11:31 AM Indeed it is a great time to be a Mountaineer.. Beating Pitt despite some questionable coaching calls like not kicking a couple of field goals, pooch kick-offs (resulted in 2 FG for Pitt), illegal procedure penalities.. but overall a much needed victory over an overrated Pitt team.. Lets hope Cincy beats them and we are in second place after beating the Scarlet Knights B-Ball team looks solid with Devin back and will only get better.. too many touch fouls as refs need to let teams play Gotta beat Portland on Sunday for a complete successful weekend of WVU teams and the women need to win as well
	Posted by Dave_from LV on 11/28/09 at 1:31 PM Great day in Anaheim watching the mounties dump the Aggies. Later, at the "ESPN zone" in Disneyland we enjoyed with many other mountaineers watching the eers beat PITT. Amazing there are always people following the mountaineers; we amazed the LA locals with our mountaineer spirit! Beat Portland!
	Posted by MountieFan16 on 11/29/09 at 12:56 AM This was Mountaineer weekend. While I beg to differ with one of our commentators on the "questionable coaching calls", as understand the decision "go for it" versus the FGs; as we were playing a Pitt team ranked in the top 10 and wanted to put as many points on the board as we could. The trap play off the left side really floored me as I hadn't seen it all year. A great win. On the hardwood, the Mountaineers look very good. While I don't think the current tournament has the absolute best caliber teams playing, it's a great tune-up for the Big East league play. I'd say we have a pretty good shot at making some noise in the league, and Nationally.

Name:
Comments:
Security Code:	Enter the code exactly as you see it above. NOTE: You may refresh the page to load a new Confirmation Code if this one is unreadable.