Despite Threes, Louisville in Four

West Virginia’s Patrick Beilein banked in a three-point shot from deep in the corner and Louisville Coach Rick Pitino told his Cardinals not to worry.

Beilein stopped not far over the half-court line, 30 feet from the basket, and made another. That’s OK, Pitino told his wide-eyed pupils. What can you do?

Kevin Pittsnogle, a 6-foot-11 center, knocked in a 26-foot three-point shot while he was falling out of bounds. Not to worry, Pitino told the shell-shocked Louisville players, comebacks are fun. “But,” Pitino said, “I was lying.”

In a game Pitino called one of the most satisfying of his 27-year head coaching career, fourth-seeded Louisville overcame a stunning three-point shooting performance by seventh-seeded West Virginia and advanced to the Final Four with a 93-85 overtime victory in the NCAA Albuquerque Regional final Saturday. The Cardinals will meet Illinois on Saturday in St. Louis.

The Mountaineers (24-11) made 18 three-pointers, breaking a school record. But it is Pitino who has become the first men’s coach to take three teams to the Final Four. First it was Providence, then Kentucky three times and now he goes with the Cardinals (33-4), who are making their eighth trip to the Final Four.

While West Virginia was taking a 20-point lead and making 10 of 14 three-pointers in the first half, Pitino was tearing up his game plan and coaxing his cramping, gasping players into a furious press and a heart-stopping second-half rally.

At halftime, when Louisville was trailing, 40-27, Pitino said he did something he had never done before. “I’ve never abandoned a whole scouting report at halftime,” Pitino said, “but it had to be abandoned.”

The Cardinals go only eight deep, so Pitino has more often than usual used a two-three zone defense this year, and that was the plan against West Virginia.

But then this game started.

“In my life,” Pitino said, “I’ve never seen shooting like that. Half court, top of the key, banked in from the wing, center falling out of bounds. To only be down 13 at the half and they’d made 10 threes, I told my team that was fine.”

With 2 minutes 51 seconds left in the first half, Pittsnogle, the only Mountaineer from West Virginia, made a three-pointer to put his team up, 38-18. But the Cardinals forced three turnovers, Taquan Dean and Francisco Garcia made threes and the Mountaineers mustered only two free throws by Mike Gansey in those final couple of minutes.

“That little flurry really helped them,” Gansey said. “I think that gave them some hope.”

From the start of the second half, the Cardinals were pressing and trapping and constantly waving their arms, knocking at the ball with their hands and discombobulating the laid-back Mountaineers.

West Virginia’s lead had been cut to 10 two minutes into the second half. With 10:29 left in the game, Louisville was within three, 54-51, and, as guard Larry O’Bannon said, “The game was really on. We thought that if we were under double digits by 10 minutes left, we were in it. This was better.”

Pittsnogle, who finished with 25 points and six three-pointers, and Gansey answered with back-to-back threes and Beilein broke free for a layup that was goal-tended to put the Mountaineers up, 62-53.

With 4:02 left, Garcia, Louisville’s most gifted player, fouled out and Dean (23 points, seven three-pointers) was cramping badly from the effort of constantly playing full court. So O’Bannon, a senior playing for his hometown university, took over.

In the last four minutes, he made two free throws, put in a rebound and, most important, drove for a layup with 38.2 seconds left that made it a 77-77 tie. After Garcia’s backup, Brandon Jenkins, blocked a drive attempt by Mountaineer guard J.D. Collins and Dean came up short from the corner with about three seconds left, overtime arrived.

By now the Mountaineers’ jump shots were rimming in and out, just a bit short. “I couldn’t imagine us making 18 threes and losing,” West Virginia Coach John Beilein said. “But that’s the beauty of this game. Expect the unexpected.”

The Cardinals scored five of the first six points in overtime and gained the momentum for good. “I’ve coached a lot of comebacks,” Pitino said, “but none was ever so satisfying or as big as this one.”

O’Bannon, who finished with 24 points and was named the region’s most outstanding player, tossed the ball to the ceiling at the end. “I didn’t think I’d have the energy,” he said. “But I did.”