LIKE IT IS : Huggy’s Mountaineers claw back but can’t win
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/221063/
PHOENIX — Huggy Bear needs a new T-shirt, and now he’s got plenty of time to shop.
Bob Huggins’ blue T-shirt looked like he might have had it in college with a stretchedout, sagging neck, but no one’s ever accused him of being a clotheshorse.
He is, though, a great basketball coach, and even in defeat Thursday night he took the West Virginia program further than anyone could have expected in his first season as head coach at his alma mater.
In overtime, Xavier, which survived Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, put away the Mountaineers through early and late threepoint shooting.
For the f irst 30: 16, the Musketeers led, but Joe Alexander aced one off the glass for the Mountaineers with 9: 44 to play in regulation for West Virginia’s first lead of the game.
And from then until the final buzzer, CBS couldn’t have been happier.
From that point to the end of regulation, there were nine lead changes and four ties, although Xavier had two opportunities in regulation but the smallest guy on the court tried to be the biggest man.
Leading 64-62 with 58 seconds to play and the Musketeers starting a fresh clock, Xavier’s senior point guard Drew Lavender ran the clock down instead of going for the two-for-one on possessions and tried to draw a foul with 24. 3 seconds to play.
Only he missed badly and no foul was called, and that allowed Alexander to score with 14. 2 seconds left and tie it at 64.
On the ensuing possession, Lavender never gave the ball up, although Josh Duncan had 26 points for the Musketeers, but again the 5-7 point guard drove into the land of giants, missed and the game went to overtime.
The Mountaineers scored first in overtime, made it 69-65 with 4: 03 to play, and then it was like it hit them that Alexander had fouled out.
At the same time, Xavier Coach Sean Miller went back to what had worked for the Musketeers in the first half, three-point shooting.
They had six in the first half, only two in the second, but hit three in overtime to survive and advance to Saturday’s Elite Eight.
Actually, the game ended up being a lot better than the way it started.
West Virginia opened like it discovered basketball — yesterday.
The Mountaineers missed threes, layups, had shots blocked and unforced turnovers and played an anemic style of defense.
At one point, they were 1 of 10 from the field.
While they were trying to selfdestruct early, Xavier played in a way that would have made John Naismith smile.
The Musketeers hit six of their first seven three-pointers, crashed the boards and ran out to a 28-10 lead with 9: 09 to play in the first half, and they may have had CBS thinking of switching the entire telecast to North Carolina and Washington State if that wasn’t on the verge of being a big blue blowout.
Then, as it does so often, the momentum changed. Huggins was yelling, screaming and encouraging, and when the Mountaineers came out of a tongue-lashing timeout, they started playing defense like they needed helmets and shoulder pads.
They were physical, in-yourface, and determined to scratch their way back into the game, which they did.
Because of that tuned-up defense, the Musketeers went 5: 01 without a field goal and gave up a 10-0 run to West Virginia.
In the last 9: 09 of the first half, Xavier scored two field goals, one of those was off a rebound, and missed its last six shots — oh, and the Musketeers missed the front end of a 1-and-1 — and went into the locker room at intermission holding on to a 32-27 lead.
It got interesting enough in the second half that CBS might have considered making it a national telecast, and if it had everyone would have seen two teams playing hard-nosed defense.
In the end, Xavier was 3 for 3 on three-pointers in the third period, and with Alexander out, West Virginia didn’t have an answer.