SYRACUSE, N.Y. – All season long West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins talked about the importance of making shots. Someone forgot to tell Kentucky to listen in.
The Wildcats shot 34.3 percent, including 4-for-32 from 3-point range, and the Mountaineers held off a late rally for a 73-66 win to advance to their second Final Four and first since 1959.
“49 states picked us to lose. Obviously we wanted to make everybody upset. We went out there and played our game. We grinded it out,” said senior Da’Sean Butler, who had 15 first-half points and finished with 18 despite hitting only 4-of-15 field goals.
It took a while for WVU to play the way it’s accustomed to, as the Mountaineers were held without a two-point field goal for the entire first half. West Virginia was 0-for-16 on its attempts inside the 3-point line and outscored 18-0 in the paint
“(Kentucky) did a really good job every time we drove to the basket and took the ball out of our hands. We weren’t playing strong in the interior,” Butler said.
While the Mountaineers struggled inside, they made up for it by shooting 8-for-15 from 3-point range and holding a 13-0 advantage in points off turnovers through the first 20 minutes. WVU also used a 1-3-1 zone that forced Kentucky to miss all eight of its 3-point attempts in the first half.
“The 1-3-1 bothered us. We tried different things and it bothered us more than I thought it would,” said Kentucky head coach John Calipari.
Butler hit four of the eight 3-pointers in a span of 4:10, which turned a 16-9 deficit into a 25-20 lead. The Wildcats trailed 28-26 at the half in large part because they were 0-for-8 on 3-pointers and had 10 turnovers compared to three assists.
However, they remained right in the thick of things by outrebounding WVU 29-13.
West Virginia began the second-half on an 8-0 run that included 3-pointers from Kevin Jones and an unlikely source in John Flowers.
The Wildcats narrowed the deficit to five before Joe Mazzulla and Devin Ebanks scored 17 straight points for West Virginia. When Cam Thoroughman became the first WVU player to score in 8:32, the Mountaineers were on top 55-45.
Mazzulla finished with 14 of his 17 points in the second half and was named the East Region’s Most Outstanding Player for his efforts.
Ebanks scored all 12 of his points after the break, and the Mountaineers managed 18 second-half points in the paint.
“We talked about making them play our tempo. Once we started playing our type of game, it was over,” said WVU senior Wellington Smith.
Huggins elected to stay in the 1-3-1 zone and force Kentucky to take shots from the perimeter.
“We came in thinking we would change defenses to try to keep them off balance. Maybe halfway through the first half it seemed like the 1-3-1 was better. So we were going to ride that as long as we could,” Huggins said.
The Wildcats didn’t hit a 3-pointer until DeAndre Liggins knocked one down with 3:28 remaining to make it 63-52.
“They’re a long, athletic team. They did a great job denying us from getting to the wings. Their defense did a great job on us and we didn’t knock down shots today,” said Kentucky point guard John Wall.
Kentucky finished 16-for-29 at the free-throw line, while WVU made 23-of-34 attempts.
Jones scored 13 points and he and Butler joined Mazzulla on the all-region team.
Wall led Kentucky with 19 points but committed five turnovers. DeMarcus Cousins added 15 points and eight rebounds.
The Wildcats finished with a 51-36 rebounding advantage against a team that prides itself on the glass. Still, Butler never let the Mountaineers doubt themselves about the outcome and a trip to Indianapolis to meet the winner of tomorrow’s game between Duke and Baylor.
“I knew we were going to win,” he said. “It was a matter of how we were going to do it.”