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Mitchell helps West Virginia down South Florida

Jan 24, 2011 - 2:45 AM Morgantown, WV (Sports Network) - Casey Mitchell led a balanced attack with 13 points and 14 rebounds, as No. 21 West Virginia defeated South Florida, 56-46, in Big East action.

John Flowers and Kevin Jones each chipped in 13 points for West Virginia (13-5, 4-2 Big East), which recovered from a 75-71 setback to Marshall on Wednesday and has won five of six overall.

Deniz Kilicli finished with eight points and eight boards in the victory.

Augustus Gilchrist led all scorers with 20 points to go with 10 rebounds for South Florida, (7-14, 1-7), which has dropped nine of its last 10. Jawanza Poland had nine points in defeat.

Tied at just 10-10 nearly 7 1/2 minutes into the contest, West Virginia outscored the Bulls 17-6 in the remaining time of the first half.

"I thought it was kind of a 'blah' game for both teams," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. "We played really, really well defensively at times."

Kilicli's jumper put the hosts in front 16-12. Then Flowers' make ended a string of 11 straight points to put West Virginia up by 13 with 1:59 left and it held a 27-16 advantage at the break.

Jones and Flowers bookended a 9-0 run early in the second half to put the Mountaineers ahead 36-20 with 15:32 remaining and they would hold a double- digit lead until late in the contest.

After Jones made 1-of-2 at the stripe with under two minutes to play, Poland hit a three-pointer to draw the visitors within seven, 48-41, with 1:44 on the clock.

However, Jones' layup on WVU's next possession extended the lead back to nine and the Mountaineers held on from there.

Game Notes

West Virginia improved to 7-1 in the all-time series against South Florida...The Mountaineers made 33.3 percent of their shots, but only 2-of-11 from three-point range, while USF made 31.4 percent from the field and a woeful 1-of-13 from beyond the arc.