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12 March 2010
“He’s a winner,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins of Butler. “He’s going to have the ball at the end of games, he’s done it time and time again.”
It's the fifth time this year Butler has hit the winning shot for West Virginia. He also did it in wins against Cleveland State, Marquette, Louisville and Villanova.
The third-seeded Mountaineers were the only team with a double bye to advance in the Big East Tournament on Thursday. Top-seeded Syracuse was defeated by Georgetown, fourth-seeded Villanova lost to Marquette and second-seeded Pitt was downed by Notre Dame.
"I'm not a fan of the double bye, but I don't know that that had that much to do with it," said Huggins.
Cincinnati, playing its third game in as many days, was looking to pull off another late-game victory. On Tuesday night, the 11th-seeded Bearcats got free throws from Lance Stephenson to beat Rutgers and last night, Deonta Vaughn preserved the Bearcats’ 69-66 win over Louisville by stripping Edgar Sosa before he was able to get off a game-tying 3.
Tonight’s game featured a combination of great defense and some bad offense. Cincinnati missed its first 10 shots of the game and did not score its first field goal until 9:21 when Stephenson made a reverse layup.
West Virginia (25-6) which led by as many as 14 points, 18-4, with 10:57 left in the first half, couldn’t throw it in the ocean for the rest of the half, going scoreless for a five-minute stretch until Butler’s 3 from the top of the key ended the dry spell.
"We were just standing still a lot," said Butler. "When they went man we just didn't pass the ball. Instead of passing the ball and doing the things that got us the lead, we kind of strayed away from that and were making two passes and taking quick shots."
Cincinnati (18-15) made it a one-point game on Darnell Wilks’ fast-break dunk that was made possible by Joe Mazzulla’s missed 3 from the wing.
After Casey Mitchell's jumper made it 23-20, Cincinnati’s Larry Davis answered by drilling a 3 from the corner with 39 seconds to tie the game at 23.
West Virginia untied it just ahead of the halftime horn when Jonnie West hit a contested 3 from the top of the key.
Early in the second half West Virginia once again appeared to be taking control of the game, getting baskets from Truck Bryant, Kevin Jones and a 3 from Butler to take an eight-point lead at 36-28 with 13:09 to go.
Cincinnati cut it to two, 36-34, on a pair of Yancy Gates baskets and free throws by Stephenson.
But back to back baskets by Devin Ebanks and Jones got West Virginia’s lead back to nine, 47-38, with 5:42 to play. Then buckets by Gates and Stephenson and a 3 by Vaughn with 3:36 left pulled the Bearcats to within two, 47-45.
“When they started to come back it really didn’t rattle us,” said Butler. “We just tried to stay focused, listen to coach and a little luck helps.”
