TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

West Virginia Upsets No. 2 Pittsburgh 74-60

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: March 13, 2009

Updated: 03/13/2009 12:24 am

NEW YORK - Freshman Devin Ebanks scored a career-high 20 points to lead scrappy West Virginia to a 74-60 upset of No. 2 Pittsburgh on Thursday night, knocking out the defending Big East Tournament champions and advancing to the semifinals for the second straight season.
Alex Ruoff added 18 points and Da'Sean Butler had 16 for West Virginia (23-10), which might be the hottest team in the nation's deepest conference. The Mountaineers have won four of their last five, their lone loss coming to No. 5 Louisville last weekend.

The tournament's seventh seed got a big assist from DeJuan Blair, the league's co-player of the year, who spent most of the game on the bench for Pittsburgh (27-4). The big man managed only 14 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 1:17 left in the game.

Sam Young scored 15 points to lead the Panthers (27-4), whose chances of securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament took a big hit in what had been a friendly venue.

Pittsburgh had advanced to seven of the last eight tournament championships, winning four games in four days last year to capture the title, and was 23-8 at Madison Square Garden since 2001.

So much for that.

The Mountaineers shot 44.2 percent from the field against one of the league's best defenses and improved to 17-0 this season when scoring at least 70 points.

NO. 10 VILLANOVA 76,

NO. 21 MARQUETTE 75

Dwayne Anderson's last-second layup fell in as the buzzer sounded, and his only field goal of the game gave No. 10 Villanova a victory against No. 21 Marquette.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats (26-6) led by 17 points in the first half, but Marquette took its first lead since the game's early minutes on a 3-pointer by Lazar Hayward that made it 75-74 with 1:40 to play.

Both teams had two empty possessions after that, with Jerel McNeal of the Golden Eagles (24-9) missing on a drive with 14 seconds to play.

Villanova's Reggie Redding dribbled the ball near the top of the key and finally began a move toward the basket with just a couple of seconds left. He found Anderson on the left side of the lane, and his layup seemed to sit on the rim for a while before falling through.

Scottie Reynolds had 21 points and Corey Stokes added 20 for Villanova.

Jimmy Butler had 19 points for fifth-seeded Marquette, which has lost five of six since starting point guard Dominic James broke his left foot.

NO. 5 LOUISVILLE 73,

PROVIDENCE 55

Providence might have had a chance against fifth-ranked Louisville (26-5) if the Friars ever got a shot off.

Earl Clark had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and the Cardinals nearly forced Providence into setting a Big East Tournament record for turnovers in a sloppy victory.

Freshman center Samardo Samuels added 22 points for the No. 1 seed and regular-season conference champions, who have won eight in a row and are trying to show the NCAA Selection Committee that they deserve a No. 1 seed when the bracket is announced Sunday.

Weyinmi Efejuku scored 17 to lead the Friars (19-13), who turned the ball over a staggering 26 times - one shy of the tournament record - in what likely was a must-win game for their postseason hopes.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT