Pittsburgh Panthers at West Virginia Mountaineers, WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, WV
Monday, February 7, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: West Virginia -2
Current Line: West Virginia -1
Opening Total: 130
Current Total: 128
Money Line: West Virginia -110 / Pitt -110
The 181st edition of the Backyard Brawl on the hardcourt will take place in Morgantown on Monday night when the 25th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers (15-7, 6-4 Big East) host the fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (21-2, 9-1). The Mountaineers (-1) will be going for their third win in the last four meetings with the Panthers, who have won 11 of their last 12 games overall but will be without leading scorer Ashton Gibbs (16.3 points per game) due to a knee injury.
Pitt has bounced back from its lone loss in conference play to Notre Dame by beating Rutgers on the road and Cincinnati at home, but this matchup at West Virginia will clearly be a more difficult challenge. The Mountaineers have dropped consecutive games only once this season, and that came at the beginning of the Big East schedule when they lost to St. John’s and Marquette.
West Virginia is coming off a 66-50 loss at Villanova on Saturday as leading scorer Casey Mitchell returned to action following a suspension but did not start. Mitchell had missed the previous three games and showed some rust in limited time, missing all three of his shots and turning the ball over twice in 13 minutes. Kevin Jones led the Mountaineers with a team-high 16 points while John Flowers added 15 and nobody else finished in double figures. The team shot just 35.8 percent from the field and allowed the Wildcats to shoot 54.3 percent.
The Panthers are coming off a dominant 71-59 home win against the Bearcats on Saturday but struggled on the road against the Scarlet Knights the previous week. Gibbs had his second straight strong offensive performance for Pitt with a game-high 25 points, making 7 of 11 shots from the field and all of his five attempts from 3-point range. However, he suffered an MCL injury and is expected to miss 10-14 days. Gibbs also scored a game-high 24 points in a 65-62 win at Rutgers after totaling just nine in a 56-51 home loss to Notre Dame.
Travon Woodall is expected to fill in as a starter for Pittsburgh after averaging 6.7 points and 3.6 assists in 20.4 minutes per game off the bench. Woodall has not scored in double figures since totaling 11 points in a 97-64 win against Maryland-Eastern Shore back on December 18.
The Panthers won the last meeting with West Virginia last February 12 in a shootout, beating the Mountaineers 98-95 in overtime. The UNDER had cashed in the previous three meetings following that OVER with West Virginia winning twice. The UNDER has also cashed in the last five games for the Mountaineers overall.
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