from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Ri

Showing grit and no-retreat toughness, No. 15 West Virginia made a statement Saturday by snapping Virginias 24-game home win streak.Now the Mountaineers (6-1) hope to maintain that edge against Western Carolina (3-5) during a Wednesday night follow-up. The game is being staged three hours south of West Virginias campus at the Charleston (W.Va.) Civic Center.Fans expectations are energized by the 66-57 upset at Virginia in which Bob Huggins team used an 11-2 closing run.It got to be a playground type of game, Huggins said. It was kind of two teams from different neighborhoods. It got a little chippy, got a little physical, got a little talking going on. I think our guys respond to that.Leading the nation in average margin of victory (plus-30.3 points), forced turnovers (25.4 per game) and steals (13.1 per game), West Virginia could pad those stats as it begins a five-game stretch against mid-majors with a combined record of 18-25.Huggins wants his team to use the next three weeks of nonconference play to improve execution in the half-court offense. He even altered shooting drills to get players more passing repetitions.We have the greatest managers in the world, and theyre better passers than our guys, Huggins said. So I told (assistant coach) Erik Martin, Heres an idea: Why dont you let our guys pass to our guys instead of the managers passing to our guys.One player already adept at passing, 6-foot-9 senior Nathan Adrian stands among the national leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio and paces the Mountaineers at 13 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. After missing all four 3-point tries at Virginia, the forwards long-distant shooting dipped to 26 percent, though he contributed in other facets.Nate shot the ball poorly, but he still made plays, Huggins said. We ran offense through him, he did a great job defensively, he kept balls alive, rebounded the ball. He still did things to win the game.Forward Esa Ahmad (12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds per game) and point guard Jevon Carter (9.2 points, 3.0 steals per game) are important cogs in a deep rotation in which 12 players average four points or more.While the Mountaineers score more than 90 points per game, Western Carolina averages just 56.2 as it nears the finish of a seven-game road swing. The Catamounts have already visited Miami (Fla.), Marquette and Ohio State.As a young basketball player, Id watch games on TV that were played in these places, Western Carolina freshman Jason McMillan said. Its a dream come true to go into those arenas, lace up, put on a jersey and play. Its a whole other level.Along with the financial boost provided by such cash games, Catamounts coach Larry Hunter uses them as teaching tools before Southern Conference action.When you play teams like Ohio State and Marquette, your weaknesses are identified much more readily, he said.Junior guard Haboubacar Mutombo leads Western Carolina in scoring (12 points per game) and rebounding (7.1 boards per game). Sophomore forward Marc Gosselin is contributing 8.6 points and 6.1 rebounds a game.The Catamounts are coming off a 58-53 win over Appalachian State on Saturday. Mutombo scored a team-high 13 points. Allen Iverson Grizzlies Jersey . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Jersey . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. http://www.grizzliesbasketballpro.info/Marc-Gasol-Grizzlies-Jersey/ .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. Allen Iverson Jersey .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Grizzlies Jersey . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. SAN DIEGO -- Donnel Pumphrey cannot be stopped.The 59, senior running back for San Diego State broke Marshall Faulks school record of 4,589 rushing yards Saturday night against Cal with a 14-yard run in the fourth quarter.Pumphrey leads all active FBS players in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, 100-yard games and all-purpose yards.Faulk spent three years at SDSU, averaging 6 yards a carry before being drafted second overall in the 1994 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts.Pumphrey has crept into the Heisman conversation and SDSU atttempted to bolster that conversation by unveiling a 50-foot banner on one of the residence halls with the words Pumphrey for Heisman on it.ddddddddddddFaulk finished second in Heisman voting in 1992 to Gino Toretta, a quarterback from University of Miami.Pumphrey has averaged exactly 6 yards a carry over his career and still needs 9 touchdowns to surpass Faulk for most rushing touchdowns in school history. ' ' '