MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - It was the kind of performance we had all come to expect out of Devin Ebanks. After the kind of play WVU had gotten from the 6-9 forward as a freshman, his sophomore campaign was supposed to be as dominant as any Morgantown had seen in years. But low points totals have been over-shadowing shutdown defense and solid rebounding all season.

Wednesday night, however, the scorer in Ebanks decided to make an appearance and embarrass the Providence Friars, who lost their sixth straight contest in the process.

Coach Huggins has said all season that he’s not expecting huge offensive numbers from Ebanks, but a night like he had against Providence is certainly nothing the head coach would turn down in the remaining games.

His 21 points Wednesday were just a point shy of his career best, and while he finished 9-of-15 from the field, there was a time when it looked as though he may never miss. Providence sure doesn’t pride itself on defense, but Ebanks made the smaller Friars team look like children at times as he brushed them aside while driving to the basket or cleaning up the boards.

Huggins knew going into the game that his team stood a chance of putting up high numbers on the offensive end simply because of the style of play they expected from Providence.

“The reason there’s more points is there’s more possessions. They try to make you shoot it quick and they shoot it quick themselves,” said Huggins. “The fallacy is some of these [teams] that profess to be such great defenders; they’re great defenders because they take so much time on offense. Any time you shorten the game and have less possessions, it would stand to reason you’re going to have less points.”

Needless to say, this is not how Providence likes to play.

Providence has the sixth-highest scoring offense in the nation with 81.5 points per game. Only Villanova ranks ahead of the Friars in the BIG EAST. They take more three-pointers than any team in the league, and bank on their ability to clean up the offensive glass in case they misfire.

“They’re leading the league in offensive rebounding. I think that’s a big part of it,” said Huggins. “They shoot a lot of threes. Your percentage doesn’t have to be as high when you shoot as many threes as they do. And they’re a very good transition team.”

True, the Friars did a good job capitalizing on West Virginia’s mistakes, and on many occasions they turned a miss or a turnover into a quick two or three at the other end.

On Wednesday, however, there weren’t enough opportunities for transition

baskets as they were out-rebounded 41-26 overall by West Virginia. Ebanks, Kevin Jones and Wellington Smith combined for just one less rebound than the Friars pulled in as a team. Their eight offensive boards were far below the 17.5 they had averaged so far this season.

In the second half, Providence didn’t look like they needed any success rebounding as their reliance on the three was all they needed to get back into a game that was all but over when the teams headed into the locker rooms at intermission. Eventually, however, even with the threes falling, the Mountaineers kept bringing the ball back the other way and building back the lead that the Friars had chipped away at. When West Virginia shoots nearly 50 percent and puts up over 70, they’re tough to stop.

They’re especially tough to stop when hitting 83 percent of their free throws and when Ebanks is seemingly scoring at will, whether it’s from the paint or a mid-range jumper. It was about this time last season that the freshman solidified himself as one of the top newcomers in the BIG EAST. The Mountaineers could certainly use more of the kind of production they’ve gotten from Ebanks of late to propel them into the conference and NCAA tournaments.

Reports out of the Coliseum earlier this week were that the team was practicing with an intensity they had not displayed consistently all season. Whether that intensity is what sparked this performance out of Ebanks or if he just decided it’s time to leave his imprint on the game’s final score, the Mountaineers will take what he is giving them.