He had no choice. His team had no offensive firepower.

In the first half, the Pirates took shots and missed the rim five times. In the game, they did so eight times.

One of the times Seton Hall did hit the rim was when Fuquan Edwin tried an alley-oop pass. And hit the rim.

At the end of the first half, Seton Hall missed 12 of its last 13 shots. No sitcom could have provided the 9,729 in attendance more chuckles.

The Pirates' premier scorer, Jeremy Hazell, had but one basket from the floor in the first half. He finished with five points.

When WVU's defense held Seton Hall to 16.7 percent shooting in the first five minutes of the second half, writers went diving for the record book. Could the Pirates finish the game with the lowest shooting percentage ever at the Coliseum?

Well, the answer was no. Seton Hall came back to make the score respectable and finished with 29.5 percent shooting. (The all-time low at the arena, by the way, is 21.7 percent authored by Prarie View A&M in 2007. WVU won that game 106-41.)

Anyway, the outcome of the game was never in question. (Favorite quote from Willard: "We need to score more points, so it would've helped if anyone hit a shot at any point.")

The game did have one notable moment, though, in the second half. It was when John Flowers threw a little block party, all in the span of 21 game-clock seconds.

After missing a 3-point attempt, Flowers seemed intent on redeeming himself. At 8:28, he blocked the shot of 6-foot-8 Pirate senior Herb Pope. Then, after a 3-point miss from WVU's Kevin Jones, Flowers bloomed again on defense. He blocked the shot of Edwin, seemingly before the shot left the 6-6 guard's hand.

Then, at 8:12, he seemingly had his third block, this time of Keon Lawrence. The crowd started to explode - until an official diffused the explosion by calling Flowers for a foul.

The 6-7 senior from Waldorf, Md., smiled when reminded of the moment. He heard the crowd. He knew how close he was to single-handedly bringing down the joint.

"Yeah,'' he said. "I think the crowd gets hyped up on blocked shots.''

He paused, then added . . .

"I love blocking shots. I think I like blocking shots more than I do dunking.''

He's certainly earned a niche for himself. He has 52 this season in 21 games. That's second in the Big East only to the 54 of Syracuse's Rick Jackson. But Jackson, after Wednesday's game with Connecticut, has his number in 23 games.

Flowers is now sixth among WVU's all-time shot blockers behind D'or Fischer (190), Phil Wilson (178), Wellington Smith (162), Marcus Goree (157) and Pervires Greene (139). The 215-pound Flowers now has 137 in his career - with at least 10 remaining games, not counting any NCAA or NIT appearances.

Someone asked him Wednesday if he's turned blocking shots into an art form.

"An art form? I consider the game of basketball an art form,'' he said. "It's fun to play. All of our defenses ... I love playing defense. I love playing defense more than I like playing offense. It's just what I'm good at doing.''

Flowers said he received some tips from the school's No. 3 shot blocker.

"Wellington Smith was here last year and I watched him block a lot of shots,'' Flowers said. "He basically just timed it up. He had a great leaping ability and when they shot it, he just went up and swatted it. Basically, I just sit back and time it up.

"My teammates help me, though. If I leave my man to block a shot, I know my teammates are behind me picking up my man.''

"Most of his shot blocks come off the ball,'' said WVU guard Joe Mazzulla. "Obviously that makes him a great help defender. That means he's in great position on the defensive end. I think he does really well anticipating when the player is going to shoot the ball. And when he's on that help line, he puts himself in a much better position to shot block because how close he is and how quick he is.''

"When I'm guarding a shooter, I can't help out as much,'' Flowers said. "Like today, I had Hazell. We don't want him to get on a roll.''

Mission accomplished. Hazell had but the five points. Flowers finished with just the two blocks. But his flurry provided one of the more memorable moments in the game. (His single-game best was seven against Oakland in 2010.)

"We practice getting to the ball,'' Flowers said. "Rotation. Help-side defense. That's what Coach [Bob] Huggins preaches. And on the ball it's basically the same thing [as off]. You don't want to go for head fakes and stuff. You have to time it up, put your hands up and block the shot."

"It can mean a lot," Mazzulla said. "I think it gets the crowd involved. I also think it makes penetrators a little hesitant. They don't want to come in the lane because they fear having their shot blocked. And even if he doesn't block it, he may alter it. Then we may get the weak-side rebound. It really plays a big part of your defense."

Flowers said his favorite career block was against Pittsburgh's 6-11 center Gary McGhee last season in the Coliseum.

"I pinned it on the glass and just grabbed it,'' Flowers said. "And he fouled me. And we got into a little tussle."

Now WVU is 15-6 overall, but heading straight for a mess of tussles. At Villanova. Pitt at the Coliseum. Later, at Syracuse. The schedule gets ugly.

Thanks to Flowers, however, sometimes the Mountaineers can simply block that out.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.