End of an Era
March 24, 2006 12:39 AM | General
March 23, 2006
ATLANTA – Kenton Paulino’s 3-point basket with 0.8 seconds left gave Texas a 74-71 victory over West Virginia in an NCAA tournament regional semifinal game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
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| West Virginia's J.D. Collins drives to the basket during Thursday night's NCAA tournament game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Texas defeated West Virginia 74-71 on a last-second basket.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
The Mountaineers tied the game at 71 on Kevin Pittsnogle’s twisting fadeaway 3 from the top of the key with 5 seconds left.
"With 5 seconds left after Kevin hit that 3 it's just very hard with their quickness to match up," said West Virginia coach John Beilein. "In 5 seconds you go straight to the basket and I thought we fanned them out enough but I'll have to watch it more to see if there was anything else we could have done."
Despite the clutch 3-point shooting, the game was really won by Texas in the paint -- the Longhorns grabbing virtually every rebound it got its hands on and finishing with a staggering a 45-16 rebounding advantage. The disparity was so wide that West Virginia’s best chance of extending the game late was for LaMarcus Aldridge to actually make a free throw with 14 seconds left to put the Longhorns up by three, 71-68.
A much smaller West Virginia team did all it could but it just couldn’t match Texas’s muscle, yet it was able to stay in the game by hitting tough 3s. The Mountaineers out-shot Texas 15-4 from behind the 3-point arc.
The difference was 6-foot-10-inch Aldridge scoring 26 points and grabbing 13 rebounds and 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound forward P.J. Tucker scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds for the Longhorns.
"As I said yesterday in the press conference, that ball bounces straight up above the rim -- that's where (Aldridge) got most of his points," Beilein said. "They had 17 offensive rebounds in the game and 14 of them came in the second half. We just don't have a defense for a put-back."
A poor shooting start by the Mountaineers helped Texas build a 14-point first-half lead after an Aldridge alley oop basket made the score 39-25 with 1:30 left in the first half. It was Aldridge’s eighth basket of the first half on just eight shots.
J.D. Collins was able to hit a jumper right before the end of the half to make it 39-27, Texas, at intermission.
"They mentally got a little down on themselves and they didn't play with the confidence that they needed to play with against Texas," said Beilein of his team's rough first-half beginning.
West Virginia (22-11) was able to feed off that Collins basket and used an 8-0 run at the start of the second half to pull to within four, 39-35. The Mountaineers got the deficit to two on several occasions at 44-42, 49-47, 53-51 and 54-52 before tying the game at 58 with 8:12 left on a Pittsnogle 3 from the wing.
Another step-back 3 by Gansey from the wing gave West Virginia a 61-58 lead with 7:27 left in the game. The Longhorns were able to respond with an 8-0 run to take a 65-61 lead before Joe Herber stopped the run with a pull-up jumper in the lane. Paulino and Gansey traded baskets before Pittsnogle was called for a foul trying to grab a rebound away from Aldridge, who caught Pittsnogle with an elbow that forced the center to receive medical attention for a bloody nose.
Aldridge was able to get one of two from the line and A.J. Abrams tacked on a pair of free throws with 26.9 seconds left to give Texas a five-point, 70-65 lead.
Gansey, who finished with 18 points, somehow managed to get enough room to get off a 3 from the top of the key to make it a two-point game with 14.7 seconds left.
Pittsnogle led the Mountaineers with 19 points and Patrick Beilein came off the bench to score 14 points including the 1,000th of his career. He finishes with 1,001 career points. Senior Joe Herber added 13.
No. 2-seeded Texas (30-6) advances to the regional championship game to play LSU on Saturday. The Tigers upset No. 1 seed Duke in the first game of the night.
Tonight's game concludes a wonderful run for West Virginia’s fabulous senior class of Pittsnogle, Gansey, Herber, Beilein and Collins. This group led the Mountaineers to back-to-back “Sweet 16” appearances for the first time since the Jerry West days of 1959 and 1960 and finished with a combined four-year record of 77-51.
"It's sad for these five that have worked so hard and to have it end one day is very difficult for everyone to grasp right now," said Beilein. "But I'm so proud of them for the way they fought back tonight and the way they have fought back throughout their careers. They can hold their heads high for what they have accomplished."
