PHOENIX — It isn’t often anyone could say West Virginia was better off without its leading scorer, Joe Alexander, on the court. But for a half, that was the case.
Alexander was swarmed under by an active Xavier defense, and though things improved in the second half, the Musketeers held off the hard-charging Mountaineers for a 79-75 overtime victory tonight in a West region semifinal at U.S. Airways Center.
Josh Duncan played brilliantly for XU, which advanced to Saturday’s Elite Eight. He finished with 26 points, but it was back-to-back overtime 3-pointers by B.J. Raymond — the second with 28.8 seconds left — that put the game out of reach.
Alexander fouled out of the game with 4:30 left in the extra period, and WVU’s scoring suffered. Xavier went on a 13-3 run in the session to go from a 71-65 deficit to a 78-74 lead. It held on to grab the win.
The game split oddly in the first half. Xavier did little wrong in the first 11 minutes, and sprinted out to a 28-10 lead with 9:09 left. West Virginia started tight, and it showed in shoddy execution and missed shots. The Mountaineers missed their first nine shots before an Alexander Ruoff bucket with 14:59 to go.
Still, things didn’t go much better until the final nine minutes, when WVU picked up its energy, and as a result, its defensive pressure. West Virginia outscored Xavier 15-4 to end the half.
West Virginia kept the pressure up in the second half, stretching that first half run to 23-6, which closed Xavier’s once large lead to 34-33. From there, it was a dogfight down the stretch.
Alexander scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half, including a crucial jumper with 14.2 seconds left, before fouling out in overtime. Alexander was fouled on the jumper, but missed the free throw, which would have won the game in regulation.
