MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Heavily favored Louisville overcame a 20-point first-half deficit to defeat No. 7-seeded West Virginia 93-85 in overtime Saturday afternoon at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. The win propels No.4-rated Louisville (33-4) to the Final Four in St. Louis to face either Arizona or Illinois.
It is the third different team Coach Rick Pittino has led to the Final Four, an NCAA tournament first. It will be Pittino's fifth Final Four.
Larry O'Bannon scored 24 and Taquan Dean contributed 23 to help Louisville improve to 8-1 all-time in regional championship games. Francisco Garcia and Juan Palacios added 13 points each.
"Louisville is a great team," said West Virginia coach John Beilein. "We did nothing wrong. Louisville started playing much better."
For one half it looked like the Mountaineers (24-11) were going to be the ones celebrating a trip to St. Louis. West Virginia shot an incredible 68 percent in the first half and made nine of 13 three-point field goals. But after a Kevin Pittsnogle three made it 38-18, Louisville was able to use a 9-2 run to finish the half down just 13, 40-27.
It was the largest halftime deficit Louisville managed to overcome this year; the Cardinals came back to beat Cincinnati earlier this year after trailing by 11 at the half.
West Virginia led by 12, 52-40 on a Joe Herber three with 15:17 remaining before Louisville used another 11-2 run to cut West Virginia's margin to three. O'Bannon scored five straight points, a Dean three, an Otis George basket, and one of two from the free throw line from Brandon Jenkins pulled Louisville to within three, 54-51.
Pittsnogle finally answered with a three for West Virginia to put the Mountaineers up by six, and another three by Mike Gansey moved WVU's lead back to nine with 9:20 to go. A Pittsnogle three with 5:27 remaining got West Virginia's lead back to 10, 71-61, before the Cardinals eventually clamped down. The Mountaineers' only points during the next four minutes came from the free throw line (one of two by J.D. Collins and a pair by Joe Herber) and Louisville was eventually able to pull to within one, 74-73, on a George basket.
A Pittsnogle three gave the Mountaineers a 77-73 lead with 1:42 remaining, but Louisville got consecutive lay ups from Palacious and O'Bannon to tie the game with 34 seconds left.
Collins' 10-foot jumper with 14 seconds left was blocked by Brandon Jenkins and Dean's good look at the game winner rimmed out with three seconds left in regulation.
Louisville finally took control of the game in overtime after Tyrone Sally fouled out. OBannon hit a pair of free throws and Dean drilled a clutch three to give Louisville an 82-78 lead. But the Mountaineers had an answer. Patrick Beilein converted a pair of free throws and Gansey contributed a lay up to tie the game at 82.
Unfortunately for West Virginia, Gansey basket was the Mountaineers last field goal of the game. O'Bannon hit a couple of free throws to put Louisville up three, and Palacios was able to give the Cardinals a five-point lead with 1:34 left.
A couple of missed lay ups by Herber and Collins were sandwiched between an unsuccessful three-point try by Gansey. Four Louisville free throws gave the Cardinals a nine-point lead with 30 seconds before Collins was able to end the dry spell with a pair from the line.
When the game ended O'Bannon fired the ball toward the ceiling and Pittino began hugging players.
Louisville was able to overcome 18 three-point field goals from the Mountaineers and an overall shooting percentage of 56.5 percent. West Virginia's 18 threes tied Loyola Marymount for second most in tournament history.
The Cardinals shot the ball well, too, especially in the second half and finished the game hitting 32 of 59 for 54.2 percent. Louisville hit 11 three and finished the game making 18 of 29 free throws. The team teams combined to make 29 threes for a regional record and West Virginia's 18 were a school record.
Pittsnogle scored 25 points for the Mountaineers. He made nine of 15 field goals including six of nine from three-point range. Beilein contributed 13 while Gansey, Collins and Herber each added 11.
Seniors Sally and D'or Fischer finished their Mountaineer careers scoring four points each. WVU played its school-record 15th nationally ranked opponent this year, winning eight.
"This is a such a great experience for them," said Beilein. "There is so much that can be learned from this and they need to take this on and know deep down in their guts that there were no losers tonight. They were winners tonight."
West Virginia was looking to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 1959 when All-American Jerry West led WVU to the final loss to California. The loss ended an improbable run for West Virginia, considered a tournament bubble team just two weeks ago.
West Virginia defeated Creighton on a last second shot, knocked off No. 2-seeded Wake Forest in overtime and pulled out a late victory against Texas Tech.
