Schifino was West Virginia's only consistent offensive threat, hitting six of his thirteen shots from the field. On a night when most of the Mountaineer squad seemed unaggressive, Schifino forced the action with a few of his signature drives to the hoop.
Schifino added five rebounds, three assists and two steals to his line on the evening, but got little help from his teammates on the offensive end. Schifino did hurt his own cause by going just 7-13 from the foul line.
The reasons for the loss weren't hard to discern. WVU was crushed on the boards, with the Irish outrebounding the Mountaineers by 51-27. Notre Dame also collected 22 offensive rebounds, which turned into numerous second chance points for the home team. WVU rarely threatend their own offensive glass, snaring just six caroms on that end.
"We just gave them way too many possessions," head coach John Beilein lamented after the game. "If you get doubled in rebounds, you're in trouble, and we just got killed off the backboards."
Notre Dame was 24-27 from the free throw line, while WVU was 11-19.
"we were just a little step slow today," Beilein said of his team. We don't usually foul much, and we did that today. We really wanted to keep the game short, and we didn't do that. We messed up three or four plays, and we just weren't good tonight."