West Virginia established itself as a serious national contender Sunday night by winning the 76 Classic in Anaheim with an 84-66 win over Portland in the final.
The Big East has now accounted for three major holiday tournament championships.
Unbeaten Syracuse (6-0) beat defending NCAA champ North Carolina last week to win the Coaches vs. Cancer event at Madison Square Garden.
No. 4 Villanova (6-0) — the Big East’s preseason No. 1 team — won the Puerto-Rico Tip-Off
And now the No. 8 Mountaineers (5-0) prevailed over a deep field in Anaheim.
Senior Da’Sean Butler was named tournament MVP after putting up 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting. He is now 13th on the all-time West Virginia scoring list with 1,532 points.
“The thing about it is he can score so many ways,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins told MSNsportsNET.com. “He can score off the bounce. He can score in the post. He makes the 3. He’s not a great percentage 3-point shooter but he makes big 3-point shots for us. When he kind of gets it going from 3 then he’s really hard to guard because that opens up his dribble drive.”
Sophomore forward Kevin Jones also made the all-tournament team after scoring 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting, and sophomore forward Devin Ebanks continues to shed the rust as he posted 14 points and 5 rebounds in just his second game of the season.
Ebanks missed the first three games of the season for what were termed “personal reasons” before Huggins brought him back in time to put up 14 points and 9 boards in the semifinal win over Texas A&M.
“Devin’s not Devin yet,” Huggins told MSNsportsNET.com. “I think against the zone Devin had three like about 6-footers that he just short-armed because he hasn’t played. We’ve got to get him in practice this week working and really get him back.”
Four-fifths of West Virginia’s core comes from the New York metropolitan area: Butler, Jones (Mount Vernon, N.Y.), Ebanks (Long Island City, N.Y.) and point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant of Brooklyn.
Bryant put up 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and relentlessly pushed the tempo on offense, at one point throwing a baseball-type fastbreak to pass to Ebanks for a layup.
That attack is going to be tough for opposing defenses to stop.
(Photo courtesy West Virginia Athletics)
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