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PROVIDENCE - And on their 40th three-point field goal attempt of the Big East Conference game, Joe Alexander's potential game-tying trifecta hit iron - and the Providence College Friars secured a thrilling 64-61 Big East Conference victory over No. 22 ranked West Virginia.

It may have been the best victory of the season for the Friars (17-9, 7-6), heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, possibly heading for an NCAA berth.

Sophomore guard Weyinmi Efejuku notched his seventh 20-point-plus performance of the season, scoring 24 points and having seven assists as PC and the Mountaineers (20-7, 8-6) battled hard for 40 minutes, through five ties and 12 exchanges of lead.

Herbert Hill added 12 points and six rebounds, Jon Kale had nine points and nine rebounds, Geoff McDermott had five assists, five rebounds and no turnovers in 40 minutes, Sharaud Curry had a season-low three points, but had five rebounds and four assists, while freshman Brian McKenzie delivered eight points, six rebounds and four assists.

"Everyone was in it, that was the best effort as a team for 40 minutes we've had,'' said Efejuku, who scored 17 second-half points (on 5-for-8 shooting). No surprise, when the sophomore guard scores 13 points or more, PC is 15-1. The Friars overcame a 39-32 deficit five minutes into the second half by scoring nine straight points, twice McKenzie converting offensive rebounds into baskets, while Kale had five points, including a three-point play out of another of PC's 13 offensive rebounds (which resulted in 17 points).

Pairs of free throws by Efejuku (with 3:42 left) and Hill (with 2:57 to go) made it 58-53 for the Friars. Then Hill twice converted alley-oop passes, first from McDermott, then from Curry for a 62-56 PC lead with 65 seconds left.

The long-range shooting Mountaineers, who have taken 751 three-point field goal attempts, 300 more than their foes (452) and the Friars (432), cut the margin to one after Alexander made a three-point play with 40 seconds left and Da'Sean Young hit two free throws with nine seconds left.

In between, Alexander (2-for-9 shooting three's) missed his trifecta, before another failed at the buzzer, the Mountaineers taking 41 chances behind the arc overall, going 4-for-26 in the second half.

"We got out on their shooters, we decided to extend the zone," said PC coach Tim Welsh of the Friars, not submitting to the temptation of playing man-to-man defense. "No one has played them zone all year, they get a lot of their three's off their man offense, they have so many cuts.''

Meanwhile, the Friars shot 58 percent (14-for-24) from the floor in the second half and had just 13 turnovers overall against the Mountaineers' 1-3-1 zone defense, which actively pressures the ball.

"We had to cheat a little bit defensively,'' said Curry, "and try to keep the ball out of the middle. They shoot so many three's, they'll go in every now and then, but hopefully, they'll start missing.''

There were four ties and seven exchanges of lead during the first half, in which neither team lead by more than six points. However, the Friars scored just six points and made just two field goals during the final nine minutes, fortunately to be trailing just 30-25 at intermission.

"All night, we handled their 1-3-1 very solid,'' said Welsh. "In the first half (9-for-30 shooting), our man-to-man offense looked like we had never practiced. We had 14 possessions there and scored just four times. They made it hard to run, but we weren't running enough.

"We had to go other ways, we had to start cutting, moving the ball and screening.'' The Friars, ranked No. 2 in the Big East in scoring (77.1) nurtured the victory against the No. 2 ranked defense (59.5) in the conference. "We just hard to work hard at fanning out and contesting their shooters,'' added Curry. "Definitely, that was as good as win as we've had.''