Jones, Ebanks score 16 apiece, No. 8 West Virginia beats Seton Hall 75-63

No. 8 West Virginia beats Seton Hall 75-63

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Kevin Jones and Devin Ebanks scored 16 points apiece and No. 8 West Virginia overcame another late meltdown against Seton Hall to beat the banged-up Pirates 75-63 on Saturday.

Da’Sean Butler added 14 points for West Virginia (21-5, 10-4 Big East).

Seton Hall trimmed a 19-point deficit to 63-60 with 3 minutes left, but West Virginia outscored the Pirates 12-3 the rest of the way. All the Mountaineers’ points in the run came on free throws.

Jeff Robinson scored 16 points and Robert Mitchell added 10 for the Pirates (15-10, 6-8).

Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell, the Big East’s second-leading scorer at 21.9 per game, played with eight stitches in his shooting hand and was limited to nine points. Starting point guard Eugene Harvey sat out his second straight game with a bruised right wrist.

On Dec. 26, West Virginia blew a 10-point lead with less than a minute to play in regulation before beating Seton Hall 90-84 in overtime.

This time, West Virginia failed to make a field goal over the final 9 minutes and Seton Hall made things interesting.

Hazell scored a career-high 41 points in the earlier game against West Virginia, but on Saturday he went just 2 of 10 from the field in 33 minutes and no one else was able to step up until the second half.

The Pirates effectively drove the ball inside to draw fouls and Robinson scored six points during a 14-0 run that made it a one-possession game with 3 minutes left. But Seton Hall suddenly went cold and the Pirates sent West Virginia to the free-throw line eight times after that and the Mountaineers made them pay.

Ebanks made five free throws down the stretch and West Virginia went 12 of 18 in the final minutes. The Mountaineers outscored Seton Hall 27-12 from the line for the game.

West Virginia shot 32 percent (8 of 25) from the field after halftime and had its 14th straight game under 50 percent shooting.

Seton Hall, coming off its only Big East road win at St. John’s on Wednesday, was outrebounded 41-36. Herb Pope, the Big East’s leading rebounder at 11.0 per game, had 10 but no one else on the Pirates had more than five.