West Virginia’s Joe Mazzulla of Johnston, looks for an opening despite the efforts of PC’s Jeff Xavier and Geoff McDermott.

AP / Jeff Gentner

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Thank God the road trips are almost over.

Providence College’s futile chase for a second road win this season continued last night at the West Virginia Coliseum as the home team pulled away in the second half for an easy 80-53 victory in front of a crowd of 11,319. The Friars fell to 1-8 on the road with only a trip to Cincinnati next Sunday remaining on the schedule.

The Friars lost for the fifth game in a row and nine of 10 overall to sink below .500 for the first time this season at 13-14 and 4-11. West Virginia renewed its charge at an NCAA Tournament bid and improved to 19-8 and 8-6 in the Big East.

PC played hard and tough for a little more than a half before melting away under the heat of West Virginia’s man-to-man defense. The Friars trailed at the half, 33-27, and by six points at the 13-minute mark before the Mountaineers put the pedal to the metal.

The home team’s defense forced 21 turnovers with PC’s three principal ball-handlers — Geoff McDermott, Jeff Xavier and Weyinmi Efejuku — combining for 16 of the miscues. “We started turning the ball over and that led to too many easy baskets,” said McDermott.

Asked about the team’s inability to maintain its composure, McDermott said, “We’d lost eight of nine and it’s tough seeing us in the same environment over and over. We have to figure out how to stay together in those games.”

With Dwain Williams sitting with an ankle injury for the second straight game, the Friars lacked any leadership at the point-guard spot. The Mountaineers could sense that trouble keenly in a 47-26 second half. Alex Ruoff, one of four double-figure scorers with 14 points, said his team’s charge went unanswered as the Friars began bickering among themselves.

“I don’t know how many they’ve lost in a row but I think it kind of got to them after a while,” Ruoff said. “They were arguing with each other and made some dirty plays, I thought. They got down on themselves.”

The Mountaineers’ knockout punch came at about the 12-minute mark. After PC’s Jeff Xavier completed a 3-point play to slice the lead to 44-38, the Friars began breaking down at both ends of the floor.

A bad pass by Xavier led to Marshon Brooks fouling John Flowers intentionally on a breakaway. Flowers missed both free throws, but WVU scored on the inbounds play when Wellington Smith was wide open for a 12-footer.

Jon Kale was blocked at point-blank range at the other end and the Mountaineers capitalized with a 3-pointer by Da’Sean Butler. After a McKenzie turnover (No. 16 of the game), non-shooting forward John Flowers banged home another 3-pointer to cap a 9-0 run and push the home team’s lead to a commanding 53-38 just inside of 12 minutes.

Instead of regrouping and fighting through their problems, the Friars faded badly. Down 55-40, PC was outscored 12-2 to fall behind, 67-42, on a Ruoff 3-pointer.

The lead remained 22 points or more the rest of the way.

“They understand the predicament we’re in. They want to play in the NCAA Tournament,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said of his team. “They understand we have to win games to do it. That was as intense as we’ve played start to finish in a while.”

PC had little offensive consistency all game. Xavier led the Friars with 15 points and Brian McKenzie added 10. Coming off his outstanding, 25-point effort against Georgetown, Weyinmi Efejuku made only 1-of-6 shots and turned the ball over five times.

“We just turned the ball over way too much,” said PC coach Tim Welsh. “We were playing point-guard-by-committee out there and defensively they get up in you and make it hard. We had trouble making the second and third pass.”

PC is on spring break this week and Welsh is thrilled to give his team a mental, and physical, break. The Friars have three games left on their schedule and need to win at least one to keep their season alive into March. Right now any break looks like a good one.

“They’re kids, college players,” said Welsh. “They’re tired of the feeling they have, but that’s a team-wide feeling. They’ll keep fighting.”W. Virginia

80

PC

53

Next Game

March 2

at Cincinnati,

noon

kmcnamar@projo.com