Jevon Carter hoisted up a pair of contested threes for West Virginia with time on his side, and wasted a second offensive rebound as he failed to shake free of Gonzaga’s perimeter defense for a third attempt. With time set to expire he instead threw the ball to an unprepared Daxter Miles, who missed badly, giving the Bulldogs a 61-58 win to advance to the Elite Eight.
West Virginia played hero ball for the final 38 seconds against Gonzaga and lost
A brutal Mountaineers final possession sends Gonzaga to the Elite Eight.
Carter dribbled out most of the final 37.9 seconds left in this game on his own without finding an open look or creating for a teammate. He’s just a college kid giving all he can to pull off the upset, but it came back to bite him.
Carter finished with 21 points, a game-high, including three second-half three-pointers, but he’ll have to remember this ugly finishing sequence all summer.
West Virginia’s pressure defense had finally hit Gonzaga in the second half of a close Sweet 16 game. The Bulldogs, owners of KenPom’s No. 1 spot, escaped the wrath of mid-major skepticism, though, despite missing 11 free throws out of 32 attempts.
Przemek Karnowski was huge for Gonzaga to get back into things with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting, better than his nine- and 10-point performances in the opening two games. He had help from Johnathan Williams’ 13 points, on a tough shooting night from leading scorer Nigel-Williams Gross, who scored just 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting. Jordan Mathews, who finished with 13 points, hit a go-ahead three with under a minute to go, which proved the dagger.
The Mountaineers did what they do best, forcing a typically steady Gonzaga team into 16 turnovers, and they had the Bulldogs where they wanted them despite their own 16-of-60 shooting. But extremely poor clock management and a late-game heroic fail cost West Virginia.
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