SAN JOSE, Calif. — West Virginia had 37 seconds, worlds of time to make up a 61-58 deficit, beginning with the option of driving for a quick two and setting up its press.
Instead, the final possession disintegrated.
An air-balled 3 from Jevon Carter, who had shouldered his team’s scoring burden all night and wasn’t about to shrink now. Dax Miles fielded the miss and flipped it back to Carter, who tried another, deeper 3 that barely caught rim. And when West Virginia chased down yet another offensive rebound, there were still 12 seconds remaining to compose themselves for a third attempt.
But Gonzaga defenders formed a canopy on the 3-point arc, and without a timeout the Mountaineers were winging it. A sometimes-marvelous 28-win season expired in disorganized panic.
“I’d like to have seen us get the ball going north and south and suck the defense in there,” said West Virginia assistant Ron Everhart.
“You’ve got to do some of the little things we just didn’t do at the end to win. But it’s a shame that we probably played our worst game of the year in terms of shooting the basketball. It’s tough, man. It’s a tough tournament.”
West Virginia made 16-of-60 shots, and most of those 16 were challenged. Teams shooting 26.7 percent don’t advance in the Sweet 16, though this one gave itself an opportunity. Coincidentally, a couple weeks ago in another tournament setting, WVU also shot 16-of-60 and edged K-State 51-50 in the Big 12 semifinals.
“Our kids fought like hell,” Everhart said. “As bad as we played we had a chance to win this game.”
Everhart said the staff thought “we got banged around on a couple of those drives, with nothing called,” and forward Esa Ahmad supported the assertion. He made only one basket but converted 7-of-8 free throws as WVU searched for someone to help Carter on offense.
“We felt like all of us were getting hit but you can’t complain about that,” Ahmad said. “We missed free throws, missed open shots. You’ve got to hit those. It was kind of on us.”