West Virginia takes an odd route to the Final Four

Reporting from Syracuse — 

West Virginia didn’t make a two-point basket until guard Joe Mazzulla flipped in a layup with 18:08 left in the game -- and still won.

It was that kind of magical Saturday for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia rained in three-pointers in the first half at the Carrier Dome and added enough shorter shots in the second to defeat Kentucky, 73-66, to win the NCAA East Regional.

West Virginia, Kentucky’s hard-luck basketball neighbor, advances to the Final Four for the first time since 1959. That was the year Cal upset Jerry West and the Mountaineers in the national title game.

“I talked to them about trying to be special,” West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins said. “If we can find a way to win a couple more we can be really special.”

West Virginia (31-6) plays the Duke-Baylor winner next Saturday in Indianapolis.

Devin Ebanks made two free throws with 14 seconds left to clinch the win, but the unexpected hero was Mazzulla, thrust into a larger role after starting guard Darryl Bryant broke his right foot at Tuesday’s practice.

Mazzulla scored 17 points, 14 in the second half, as he punctured the Kentucky defense for layups.

Did he see it coming?

“Yeah, I’ve been able to read minds for the last three or four months,” the junior from Rhode Island, joked.

Mazzulla also played tough defense at the bottom of a 1-3-1 zone that flustered Kentucky.

The Wildcats were just wild, missing their first 20 three point attempts.

“We were ‘0’ for everything,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said.

Kentucky made only four of 32 three-pointers and hit only 23 of 67 shots overall.

“We’ve had shooting days like this, but we won anyway because maybe the teams weren’t quite as good as West Virginia.”

It was a strange game and perhaps the weirdest first half ever.

West Virginia failed to score a two-point basket in the half, yet ran into the locker room with a 28-26 lead.

What?

The Mountaineers scored all their points on three point baskets and free throws. This was the same West Virginia team that made only four of 15 three pointers in Thursday’s win over Washington and shoots 33% for the year.

Incredibly, West Virginia missed all 16 of its two-point attempts in the half, but made eight of its 15 three-pointers. The Mountaineers opened the game with consecutive threes by Wellington Smith and Kevin Jones before Kentucky answered with a 13-0 run.

West Virginia, though, was just warming up. Da’Sean Butler made four three-pointers, all in the first half. He was fouled on his last one, with 2:50 left in the half, making the free throw to complete a four-point play.

Holding the opposition to no two-point baskets for the first 22 is usually a good thing.

Kentucky junior Patrick Patterson could only shake his head.

“If anyone had told me that, I would have figured the team would have won,” he said.

The Mountaineers played a more conventional second half and eventually wore down top-seeded Kentucky.

Mazzulla, making his first start of the season and averaging only 2.2 points per game, was an unlikely hero, yet his slashing layup with 12:11 left was a key moment as it put his team up by 11.

West Virginia extended the lead to 16 and then made enough free throws in the end to hold hard-charging Kentucky, which cut the lead to four in the final minute.

Kentucky finishes 35-3 and failed to reach its first Final Four since 1998. Freshman star John Wall scored a game-high 19 points and is likely to leave school to become the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft.

“I didn’t want it to stop,” he said. “I wanted us to make it all the way….I’m not worried about the talk of what I’m doing next. I’m sad and disappointed.”