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21 March 2010
BUFFALO, N.Y. – West Virginia is going back to the Sweet 16. Da’Sean Butler scored 28 points to lead West Virginia to a 68-59 victory over 10th-seeded Missouri Sunday afternoon at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.
The sixth-rated Mountaineers are making their fourth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last six years and the second under WVU graduate Bob Huggins, who led West Virginia to the regional semifinals during his first season in 2008.
Missouri (23-11) could never solve West Virginia’s tough half court man-to-man defense and an occasional 1-3-1 zone late when the Mountaineers got the lead.
West Virginia (29-6) really cashed in at the free throw line, hitting 25 of 33 for the game including nine in a row during a 13-minute stretch between halves when the Mountaineers could make only one field goal (a Truck Bryant driving layup).
"We wanted to attack their pressure," Huggins said. "When you are as aggressive as what they are, you're going to foul some. And we knew that. I think you don't foul when you don't attack. And we wanted to be in an attack mode and continue to attack them."
The Mountaineers were concerned about Missouri’s full court pressure and desire to make it a full-court, up-and-down basketball game. But West Virginia was able to control the tempo and force the Tigers to run offense, which is not their strength.
"When I said yesterday we're going to guard, they're going to have a hard time scoring against us," Huggins mentioned. "Everybody has a hard time scoring against us. Thank God they do. We have gotten a lot better over the last like three weeks to a month. We've gotten a whole lot better defensively."
"It was a regular press. We came to the ball, we met the ball a lot when they pressed and we got people coming back to the ball and we just took care of it," Butler added. "We didn't really panic. As a team we didn't really panic at all. We just stepped up to the challenge and played like men and broke the press.
