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Versatile Ebanks big on the boards for West Virginia
By Joseph Staszewski March 11, 2009
The 6-foot-9 Long Island City, Queens native has become a
bit of a utility man this season for head coach Bob Huggins.
“I’m just trying to do everything I can, every little way to
win the game,” Ebanks said. “If that means I have to bring up the ball then
that’s what it means. If I have to go rebound one game, that’s what it mean. If
I have to score, that’s what it means. As long as we get a ‘W.’”
“He is a rebounding machine,” said point guard Darryl
(Truck) Bryant, a former St. Raymond’s star. “Not much else you can say about
Devin. He is starting to feel comfortable out there.”
“Bryant was the guy we wanted to play off of a bit and maybe
be able to help and he made us pay,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “He made
big shots to start them.”
The former Bishop Loughlin star, who later transferred to
St. Thomas More in Connecticut, did a little bit of all of that in the
seventh-seeded Mountaineers’ 74-62 win over No. 10 Notre Dame in the second
round of the Big East Tournament. Ebanks scored seven points, pulled down a
career-high 18 rebounds and dished out five assists. His 18 boards are the
second most during the last 10 years at the Big East tournament. Syracuse’s Terence
Roberts had 20 in 2007.
Bryant, with some help from Ebanks, was in the middle of the
Mountaineers’ 19-4 first half run. It put them in total control of the game
until the Irish (18-14) cut the lead to seven late in the fourth. Bryant, who
had 17 points and four assists, started the spurt with a bucket in the paint
and then buried a 3-pointer off a pass from Ebanks to put West Virginia (22-10)
up 26-6 with 7:09 to play in the first half.
The 6-foot-2 freshman guard is a part of a quartet of
talented Tri-State area players on West Virginia that includes freshman Kevin
Jones of Mount Vernon HS and Da’Sean Butler of Bloomfield Tech (N.J.). All but
Jones starts.
Next season they will add another local product to the group in
power forward Danny Jennings, who used to play at Loughlin and is now at St.
Thomas More. He and Bryant were teammates with the Gauchos AAU program.
“He’s a beast,” Bryant said.
He was also happy to finally have a strong showing at the
Garden after a poor one in high school and during a loss to Davidson at the
Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 9.
“I just felt good to
play good tonight and come out with the win,” he said.
Ebanks is hoping for a few more nights like this one as the
Mountaineers move on to play No. 2 Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m.
Thursday.
“I finally got a win in this building,” he said. “Hopefully
I can get three more wins.”