Duke is done after West Virginia rallies

WASHINGTON -- For a team built only a season ago around a motion offense and a gimmick 1-3-1 zone defense, it seemed almost unfathomable for West Virginia to win an NCAA tournament game with rebounding and suffocating man-to-man defense.

But that’s the kind of impact first-year Coach Bob Huggins has had on his Mountaineers.

West Virginia put the clamps on mighty Duke and its three-point shooters in the second half Saturday, outrebounding them, 47-27, and limiting the Blue Devils to a five-for-22 performance from beyond the arc in coasting to a 73-67 upset victory in the second round of the West Regional.

“From day one, Coach Huggins came in and emphasized defense,” West Virginia point guard Darris Nichols said. “We’ve consistently gotten better and now it’s starting to show.”

If not for a turnaround on the offensive end, No. 7-seeded West Virginia’s defensive work might have gone unnoticed. The Mountaineers -- who normally thrive beyond the arc themselves -- missed on all six three-point attempts in the first half and trailed by five at the break.

But after a lecture from Huggins, West Virginia went on an 18-3 run early in the second half to take control for good. Nichols sparked the Mountaineers with a transition three-pointer -- West Virginia’s first of the game -- to close No. 2 Duke’s lead to 37-34.

The Mountaineers made all three of their long-distance attempts in that stretch, and when Joe Alexander banked in a shot off an up-and-under move with 14:38 left, West Virginia took a lead it would never relinquish against a Duke team that barely got past 15th-seeded Belmont in the opening round.

“Coach mentioned we hadn’t made an outside shot, we’d missed five layups and we were only down five against Duke,” said guard Alex Ruoff, who finished with 17 points. “That gave us a wake-up call. We couldn’t play any worse. He attacked our energy level too, saying if we didn’t win this game, that was it. I think we really got that message going into the second half and it showed.”

The lanky 6-foot-8 Alexander has taken charge for West Virginia in recent weeks, and Saturday was no exception. He led the Mountaineers with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and tormented Duke defenders who were either too small to guard him in the post or too slow to cover him off the dribble.

“He’s a very difficult matchup,” Ruoff said of Alexander. “And what doesn’t show up on the stat sheets is that he does so much for us just based on the attention that he gets. He gets the rest of us open. He’s the hardest worker on this team, and he deserves this.”

Sophomore guard Joe Mazzulla came off the bench and nearly delivered a triple-double for the Mountaineers, scoring 13 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing eight assists while routinely beating Duke’s slower guards to the basket on dribble penetration.

Mazzulla also made seven of eight free throws, most of them down the stretch, to put the game away.

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ben.dubose@latimes.com