NCAA tournament: West Virginia makes most of second chances to beat Maryland

Devin Williams had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and West Virginia scored 16 second-chance points to beat fourth-seeded Maryland, 69-59, in the NCAA tournament on Sunday night.

Next up: A showdown with top-ranked Kentucky in the Sweet 16. The fifth-seeded Mountaineers (25-9) will take on the undefeated Wildcats on Thursday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Cleveland.

Gary Browne scored 14 points and Daxter Miles Jr. had 12 as West Virginia advanced to the second weekend of the tournament for the first time since 2010, when it went all the way to the Final Four.

Melo Trimble had 15 points for Maryland (28-7), but sat on the bench for the final 8:25 after he was hurt for the third time in the game.

Maryland was trying to advance to the round of 16 for the first time since 2003 — a year after the Terps won the national championship under Coach Gary Williams.

The teams were locked in a close battle until West Virginia used its gritty pressure defense and physical play to pull away from the Terrapins.

Devin Williams scored off an offensive rebound to make it 49-46. The next time down the floor, after a Maryland miss, Tarik Phillip, who hit the clinching three-pointer late in the shot clock with 29 seconds left against Buffalo on Friday, had his shot blocked. But he got it back and powered it in with 10:08 left.

Moments later, Staten threw a 60-foot pass to Miles behind the defense for a layup. On the play, Trimble ended up getting kicked in the head by a teammate and had to be helped to the bench. He sat there for the rest of the game with his head down.

On the ensuing inbounds play, the Mountaineers covered everybody, resulting in a 5-second call that got the West Virginia faithful as excited as most fan bases do when someone gets a long 3 or a vicious dunk.

Phillip then stole a pass and fed Miles for a dunk and the large WVU contingent went crazy as the lead reached 55-46 with 7:15 left.

With Trimble — first-team All-Big Ten and the team’s leading scorer at 16.3 points a game — watching from the end of the bench, the Terrapins were in deep trouble.

After Maryland cut the deficit to five, Jevon Carter responded with a 3 for WVU with 4:18 left.

The Mountaineers were content the rest of the way to put the ball in the hands of guards Gary Browne and Staten, killing time around the perimeter.