Xavier works swing shifts

PHOENIX -- It was exhausting, exhilarating, extraordinary.

And after a seesawing 79-75 overtime victory over West Virginia, X marks a spot in the Elite Eight for Xavier.

The third-seeded Musketeers play top-seeded UCLA on Saturday in the NCAA West Regional final for a trip to the Final Four.

Up by 18 in the first half, Xavier trailed by six in overtime before the heroics of the final two minutes.

B.J. Raymond, a 6-foot-6, 226-pound forward, scored all eight of his points in overtime and made two huge three-pointers down the stretch.

His three from the top of the key with 1:22 left gave Xavier its first lead of the extra period, 75-74.

Then, on an inbounds play with two seconds left on the shot clock, he took a crosscourt pass from Stanley Burrell and made a wide-open three for a four-point lead with 30 seconds left.

“I’ve shot that shot probably 100,000 times in my life. It’s easy once you’ve shot it that many times,” Raymond said.

“When you grow up, you always do that, ‘Three, two, one,’ so maybe I shot it like that a couple of times.”

The play was drawn up for Josh Duncan inside, with Raymond supposed to set a back screen and then take his man away from the play.

Duncan finished with a career-high 26 points, but he didn’t score the decisive points for Xavier (30-6).

“The play was actually to give Josh a lob, but my man kind of dropped off on him to take away the lob,” Raymond said. “I just kind of squeaked out behind the three, and Stan saw me and made a great pass.”

He was wide open.

“We knew they were going to back screen us, two seconds to go,” West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins said. “Somebody fell asleep, I guess. I don’t know.”

The Mountaineers (26-11) reached the Sweet 16 by upsetting second-seeded Duke. But they left the door open for Xavier by missing four of their last six free throws in overtime.

Missed three-pointers by the Mountaineers throughout the game did even more damage.

West Virginia was one for 11 beyond the arc. Xavier made 11 of 19 attempts.

It was a game of wild swings, from Xavier’s early 28-10 lead to West Virginia’s three-point lead with less than 2 1/2 minutes left in regulation.

The Mountaineers missed a possible opportunity to take control late when they batted the ball around for four shots on one possession -- and missed them all.

They trailed by two in the final 30 seconds before their late-season scoring star, Joe Alexander, made a turnaround bank shot with 14 seconds left and was fouled on the play.

But Alexander missed the free throw, and Xavier’s Drew Lavender missed a shot before the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.

Alexander, who was averaging almost 27 points after six March games, finished with 18. But he had only three points during the first half and fouled out in the first minute of overtime and watched the end unfold from the bench.

“I was just trying to stay calm,” Alexander said. “Obviously, I wanted to play really bad. And I was just doing what I could to keep cheering on my teammates.”

Xavier’s defense helped keep Alexander under wraps, and West Virginia shooter Alex Ruoff too.

Alexander made only eight of 18 shots, and Ruoff scored 14 points on six-for-11 shooting, without a three-pointer.

The Mountaineers entered the game shooting 35% from three-point range. They shot 9% Thursday.

“I don’t know what we are shooting on the year, but it is definitely better than 10%,” Alexander said. “In a close game like that, if we would have shot even half of what we normally shoot, it would have made a big difference. So it definitely hurt us a lot.”

In the end, so did Raymond, the first man off the bench.

He was averaging 10 points and 23 minutes a game and shoots 41% from three-point range, but he hadn’t done much before overtime Thursday.

“I just want to thank Coach for having a lot of confidence in me to put me back in the game,” Raymond said as he sat near Xavier Coach Sean Miller. “I was kind of like a non-factor in the first 40 minutes, and I knew when I got back in there I had to make something happen, whether it be grabbing a rebound or a steal.”

He made something happen, all right. He put Xavier one step from its first Final Four.

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com