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NEW YORK — West Virginia isn’t ready to come home quite yet.
Joe Alexander scored a career-high 34 points — the most by any player at the Big East Tournament in a decade — and the Mountaineers beat No. 4 Connecticut, 78-72, on Thursday afternoon in the Big East quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden.
Alexander, who scored a then career-high 32 points in a loss at Connecticut (24-8) in the regular season, went 12 for 22 from the field and added seven rebounds.
It was the most prolific Big East Tournament performance ever by a West Virginia player and the most since Pitt’s Vonteego Cummings scored 37 against Villanova in 1998.
Da’Sean Butler added 17 points and Darris Nichols 13 for West Virginia, which used a 16-2 first-half run to take the lead for good.
The fifth-seed Mountaineers (24-9) will play top-seeded Georgetown (26-4), an 82-63 winner over Villanova, at 7 p.m. tonight in the Big East semifinals.
“They came out and kicked our butt,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “They outworked us and won the game. Simple. Case closed. We go home.”
Playing at the site of its NIT championship last year, West Virginia led 70-59 with 4:22 to play. The Huskies rallied, but West Virginia, aided by three big offensive rebounds in the final three minutes, held on to beat Connecticut for only the fourth time in their past 16 meetings.

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THE real Robinson Crusoe will be brought to life on board HMS Gannet at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, over the half term holiday.
Story sessions on the Victorian sloop will tell the tale of Alexander Selkirk, the castaway on whom the Robinson Crusoe legend was based.
It’s one of a range of activities for children, including a family fun trail, colouring, and a brass rubbing trail.
Visitors can also join a ropery tour, learning how traditional rope is made and how it was used by Nelson’s navy.
The activities take place every day until Sunday, February 24, and are included in the normal admission price.

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