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WVU holds off Pitt

MORGANTOWN (AP) — Beetle Bolden scored 18 points to lead West Virginia to a 69-59 win over archrival Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl on Saturday.

The Mountaineers (6-3) won the defensive slugfest by doing what they do best, force turnovers. Pitt’s 24 turnovers led to 22 points for their former Big East rivals. WVU also struggled however, with 26 turnovers throughout the game, the most by a Mountaineer team since 2002.

“They play really hard,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said of Pitt. “They play really hard and (Pitt head coach) Jeff (Capel) runs really good stuff.”

Both West Virginia and Pittsburgh played chippy basketball in the first half. Jared Wilson-Frame and Kene Chukwuka of Pitt as well as Lamont West and Andrew Gordon of WVU picked up technical fouls in the first half.

“Every game is always physical,” WVU’s Sagaba Konate said. “It’s just how you react to it, so that’s what we did. We reacted to it today.”

The Panthers (7-3) were hampered primarily by poor shooting early. After a Sidy N’Dir dunk put Pitt up three midway through the first half, the Panthers went on a shooting drought that would last more than eight-and-a-half minutes. Wilson-Frame and Trey McGowens nailed a couple of 3s late, but the Mountaineers went into the locker room with a 39-27 lead.

Pitt struggled to chip away at West Virginia’s lead throughout the game, but a late 6-0 run with under three minutes left did cut the lead to single digits. Bolden responded with a couple of free throws with under a minute left.

Konate came off the bench to score 16 points with nine rebounds. Konate also added seven blocks, which broke a West Virginia school record. Esa Ahmad added 13 points.

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