West Virginia never trailed during overtime Wednesday when it completed a late rally to earn a marquee victory against No. 3 Gonzaga.
The Mountaineers were involved in another extra session Thursday as they battled Louisville for a spot in the Battle 4 Atlantis title game in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
This time around, the roles were reversed for West Virginia, which fell behind 23 seconds into overtime and got even once, but was plagued by an inability to keep the Cardinals off the free-throw line in what became a 79-70 loss.
“I don’t think we ran out of gas. We’re not going to use that,” first-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “Louisville did a nice and made some plays. They were able to get to the free-throw line. There were certainly plenty of opportunities we could’ve capitalized on to come out on top.”
With the result, the Cardinals (5-1) will face Oklahoma in the title game at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The Mountaineers (4-2) meet Arizona in the third-place matchup at 3 p.m, and the contest will air on ESPN2. The Sooners defeated the Wildcats 82-77 later Thursday.
After rallying from five points down in the final 20 seconds of regulation against the Bulldogs, the Mountaineers trailed 59-52 with 4:22 remaining when Louisville guard Chucky Hepburn made two free throws.
WVU countered with an 8-0 run that began with a Toby Okani follow-up and later featured two Amani Hansberry free throws, a Javon Small jumper and Okani’s short jump hook in the paint with 2 minutes to play.
The Cardinals’ Terrence Edwards Jr. and Small traded buckets that left the Mountaineers still leading by one, before Hepburn split two free throws to tie it at 62 with 31 seconds remaining.
WVU elected to play on without calling timeout. Small and Hansberry tried to work a two-man game out front, but the possession ended with Hansberry releasing a shot well after the 30-second shot clock had expired.
“I have to know the shot clock. I tried to make a play,” Small said. “They’d been blitzing the ball screen the whole time. I just turned the ball over.”
DeVries liked the idea of Small or Hansberry taking what he had hoped would be the winning shot.
“We probably got started a little late on that possession,” the WVU coach said. “We’d have liked to maybe gone a second or two earlier. It had been working well for us getting Javon and Amani in a two-man game in space. They’d been trapping it some and if they were going to trap on that possession, we were going to get a clean look for Amani. If they didn’t, and tried to play it 1-on-1, we were going to get Javon hopefully on a big going downhill.”
Louisville gained the early lead in overtime when Reyne Smith made a three-pointer off a second-chance opportunity.
Small’s three allowed WVU to tie it at 67, but the Mountaineers couldn’t get over the hump, and fell behind again when Hepburn scored on a drive to the basket 29 seconds later for what amounted to a conventional three-point play. The foul that sent Hepburn top to the free-throw line marked the fifth on WVU forward Tucker DeVries, and WVU never got the deficit inside three the rest of the way.
“As a point guard, you want to play with gritty players,” Hepburn said. “That’s why I love this team so much.”
Starting with Hepburn’s two free throws with 1:23 remaining, Louisville made 7-of-8 foul shots the rest of the way, including 5 of 6 from the senior guard, who led all players with 32 points.
“We have to do a better job of making sure we stay vertical and don’t bail guys out and put them at the line,” coach DeVries said.
The Cardinals made 21-of-25 free-throw attempts after halftime and 24 of 33 for the game. West Virginia, which was whistled for 29 of 44 fouls in the game, made 9-of-12 foul shots.
Both teams struggled shooting for much of the first half. The Mountaineers led 14-12 with 7 minutes to play in the half, at which point they were shooting 7 for 19 to the Cardinals’ 5 for 19. The two teams had combined to make only 1 of 14 threes.
But the Mountaineers put together their best stretch of the matchup starting with Small’s driving layup for a 19-15 lead 3:37 before halftime.
It was followed by a Jonathan Powell triple for a seven-point lead, and after Small connected from long range twice in a 40-second span, WVU had its largest lead of the game, 28-17.
Louisville answered with a pivotal 7-0 spurt to close the half, getting a Hepburn trey and four points from Kasean Pryor on a dunk and two free throws.
Small led WVU with 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. He has 57 points over two games in the event.
Hansberry followed with his second-straight 19-point outing.
“I feel like I’m getting comfortable,” Hansberry said. “The game is slowing down playing against better competition and I’m getting a better vibe with my teammates.”
Okani scored 12 on 6-for-9 shooting. DeVries was held to eight points on 3-for-9 shooting.
Hepburn made 8-of-12 shots and 14-of-17 free throws. He added six of his team’s seven steals.
“Chucky had a big impact on both ends,” coach DeVries said. “He was able to get some steals and he did a great job of controlling the game on the offensive end, getting them into their things. He has a unique ability of getting into the paint and drawing fouls. He was a big factor in the game.”
Smith added 15 points with four of his team’s seven threes and Pryor and Edwards scored 13 and 10, respectively.
The Cardinals won the rebounding battle 41-34, including a 14-9 edge on the offensive glass that helped lead to a 21-10 advantage on second-chance points.
“I have an unbelievable respect for their program, coach and coaching staff. They play hard,” Louisville first-year head coach Pat Kelsey said. “It was a 45-minute rock fight. They never let up. We never let up. It was almost like old school Big East. I give them a ton of credit. It was a really good college basketball game.”