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PHOENIX - Bob Huggins walked down a hallway deep in the U.S. Airways Center Thursday night, his right arm wrapped around the waist of Joe Alexander and his left draped over the shoulder of Da'Sean Butler.
He wasn't exactly whispering sweet nothings in their ears, but it was close.
"He was just telling us, 'You're my guys. You're my family,''' Alexander would say later. "He kept saying it over and over again.''
After what the Mountaineers accomplished this season, it's little wonder Huggins developed a soft spot in his heart for this group, even if West Virginia's season had come to a disappointing, frustrating conclusion just a few minutes earlier with a 79-75 overtime loss to Xavier in the NCAA tournament West Regional semifinals.
Just like the team that wasn't supposed to have any business making it to among the final 16 teams in the tournament, the Mountaineers seemed to have little business making it competitive Thursday night. Not after falling behind by 18 points in a sometimes gruesomely played first half.
Yet this resilient bunch managed not only to fight back and make it a game, the Mountaineers actually could have - perhaps even should have - won it. In the end, though, it was a couple of familiar late-game deficiencies that rose up and bit WVU.
West Virginia failed to make free throws when they counted the most, suffered a defensive lapse to give up what proved to be the game-clinching basket and blew leads of three points in regulation and six points in overtime.
The loss ended seventh-seeded West Virginia's season at 26-11 in Huggins' first season. Third-seeded and No. 12-ranked Xavier, which will play UCLA in the regional finals Saturday, is 30-6.
"It's just a tough way to lose, to fight back like we did and get the lead and then not get the job done,'' said WVU guard Alex Ruoff. "We had some breakdowns. That was about it.''
Xavier, which got a career game from 6-foot-9 senior forward Josh Duncan (a career-high 26 points), got some breaks, too.
"Obviously, anyone who watched the game saw a phenomenal game,'' Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "We won the game. West Virginia lost. But you need a little luck when it's this tight with so much at stake. And a couple balls bounced our way.''
The biggest bounces were the ones on West Virginia free throws that bounced out of the basket. In not being able to take advantage of Xavier's own surprising foul-shooting woes (the Musketeers, who made 75 percent during the season, made just 12-of-21), the Mountaineers missed one near the end of regulation that might have won the game right there, then missed four out of six in overtime while trying to protect what had been a six-point lead.
"You're going to miss free throws. That happens,'' Huggins said. "We probably shouldn't miss as many as what we did, but you're going to miss some.''
What bothered Huggins more, though, were defensive lapses. Two stuck in his craw.
The first was just after Ruoff had made a layup with 3:23 to play in overtime to give West Virginia its biggest lead, 71-65. One defensive stop might have thrown the momentum so far in WVU's favor it wouldn't have shifted back.
But the Mountaineers didn't get back, and seven seconds after Ruoff scored, so did Xavier's B.J. Raymond on a fast-break layup.
So much for the momentum.
"We're up 6 and they beat us down the floor,'' Huggins said. "That hurt.''
What followed were the missed free throws - two by Wellington Smith and one by Joe Mazzulla. Make those and the cushion remains. Without them, though, Drew Lavender capped a mini-run by the Musketeers with a 3-pointer and the game was tied at 72.
The killer, though, came with the game on the line. Raymond had just hit a 3-pointer to give Xavier a 75-74 lead and, after a WVU turnover, Lavender dribbled out most of the shot clock before driving to the basket.
Once there, his shot was rejected into the stands by Smith, his fifth block of the night. It came with 31 seconds on the game clock and two on the shot clock.
Two more seconds of defense and West Virginia would have had the ball with a chance to run out the clock and hit a game-winner.
But on the inbounds play, Smith lost Raymond all the way across the court. The inbounds pass sailed across nine players almost as if in slow motion to a wide-open Raymond. And, like Pitt's Ronald Ramon on an eerily similar finishing play more than a month earlier, he made WVU pay, sinking the shot for a four-point lead.
That was all the cushion Xavier needed.
"Somebody fell asleep, I guess. I don't know. I'd have to look at it,'' Huggins said diplomatically. "We jammed up what they wanted to run and somebody away from the ball fell asleep.''
It didn't help that West Virginia played the overtime without Alexander, who fouled out 30 seconds into it while trying to defend Duncan in the post. He finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Butler added 16 points, Ruoff 14 and Joe Mazzulla 10. Smith had eight points and the five blocked shots.
The end of regulation wasn't as frustrating as the overtime, but the Mountaineers still could have won it right there.
In the final minutes of regulation, West Virginia had taken its biggest lead to that point at 62-59, but then things started to fall apart. Duncan tied the score with a three-point play with 1:56 to go, then the Mountaineers missed four straight inside shots. Alexander's 12-footer was no good, Butler and Ruoff both got rebounds and missed and Smith missed a tip. Then, when Duncan finally got the rebound, Smith fouled him and he made two shots to give the Musketeers a 64-62 lead.
Alexander missed another one, this time from 10 feet, and Xavier rebounded, running the clock down to less than 30 seconds before Drew Lavender missed a shot.
Then with 14.2 seconds left, Alexander hit a turnaround over Jason Love to tie the score at 64 and was fouled. But he missed the free throw that would have give WVU the lead. Lavender then dribbled out the clock before trying a 19-footer at the buzzer that didn't have a chance.
West Virginia dug its 18-point first-half hole by playing arguably the ugliest 11 minutes of the season. Perhaps the only stretch that might challenge that would be most of the midseason loss to Cincinnati.
In the first five minutes, the Mountaineers were 0-for-8 from the floor, shot an airball 3-pointer and two layups that didn't even hit the rim. Then they allowed Xavier wide-open 3-point attempts and watched the Musketeers make six of their first eight. Throw in an 0-for-6 3-point performance of its own, a 1-for-11 start from the floor and a virtual disappearing act by Alexander and it added up to a 28-10 Xavier lead.
Even when the Musketeers began to show some cracks, the Mountaineers had trouble taking advantage. Xavier turned the ball over on four of five possessions during one stretch right after taking that big lead, yet WVU cut into the edge by just two points.
But that was also the point at which Smith began dominating in the middle for a while, scoring eight straight points and blocking a shot on the other end. When Jamie Smalligan somehow sank a running push hook as the shot clock was hitting zero, the gap was just 28-20. WVU cut another point off by halftime and trailed by just 32-25 despite shooting 33 percent without a 3-pointer.
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.
Xavier 79, WVU 75, OT
West Virginia (26-11)
Player FG FT R A P
De'Sean Butler 7-15 1-1 7 1 16
Joe Alexander 8-18 2-4 10 3 18
Wellington Smith 3-8 2-4 3 1 8
Darris Nichols 1-6 4-4 4 4 6
Alex Ruoff 6-11 2-3 5 1 14
Cam Thoroughman 0-0 1-2 0 0 1
Joe Mazzulla 2-7 6-9 5 5 10
Ted Talkington 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Jamie Smalligan 1-1 0-0 0 1 2
Team 4
Totals 28-66 18-27 38 16 75
Xavier (30-6)
Player FG FT R A P
Josh Duncan 7-15 9-10 5 1 26
Derrick Brown 3-4 2-4 3 2 9
C.J. Anderson 6-12 0-2 10 0 12
Drew Lavender 3-11 0-0 3 7 9
Stanley Burrell 3-7 1-2 5 5 8
B.J. Raymond 3-5 0-2 2 0 8
Dante' Jackson 1-1 0-0 1 1 3
Jason Love 2-4 0-1 10 0 4
Team 2
Totals 28-59 12-21 41 16 79
Halftime: Xavier 32-25; 3-point goals: WVU 1-11 (Butler 1-4, Alexander 0-1, Nichols 0-3, Ruoff 0-2, Mazzulla 0-1); Xavier 11-19 (Duncan 3-4, Brown 1-2, Lavender 3-6, Burrell 1-2, Raymond 2-4, Jackson 1-1); Fouled out: Alexander, Smith, Brown, Anderson. Attendance: 18,103.
