By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — West Virginia opened with a haymaker and never stopped jabbing from there.
Five finished in double figures, and the No. 4-seed West Virginia Mountaineers advanced to the Sweet 16 with an 83-71 victory over the No. 4-seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish in second round action of the NCAA Tournament’s West Region at Key Bank Center.
Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles, Jr. drilled back-to-back three pointers as the Mountaineers connected on four of their first seven shots from the floor and grabbed a 10-0 lead before Notre Dame took a timeout 3:13 into the game.
“Whoever steps on the court, we feel like we can beat them,” Carter said. “We just got hot early and we just kept going from there.”
West Virginia came into the game leading the nation forcing turnovers on 27.9 percent of possessions. Against the team leading nation in ball handling, the Mountaineers forced miscues on 27.3 percent of possessions through the first 13 minutes of play.
“We keep that chip on our shoulder,” Carter once said. “A wise man once said, remember where you come from, and we always keep that in the back of our mind. It wasn’t an easy path to get here to West Virginia. We had to grind it out every step of the way, and when we get on the court, that gives us a chance to show it prove that other schools missed out on us.”
Notre Dame entered play committing 9.4 turnovers per game. The Fighting Irish had just six miscues in their first round win over Princeton. West Virginia forced 10 turnovers in the first half and 14 overall.
“It was a great flow, defensively and offensively,” Miles said. “I think all five guys was on the same page early into the game. That gave us extra confidence. As the game went on and we just took it from there.”
The Mountaineers scored 15 points off those turnovers. Despite finishing more than 10 points under their season average of 25.4 point per game off turnovers, the press achieved its overall effect.
“We just wanted to wear them down,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said. “We wanted to make them work really hard at advancing the ball. They shoot the ball so well. If you trap them and you don’t do a good job or you don’t make the right rotation, they’re going to make shots.
“So we were a little bit concerned about that. I didn’t want to turn them loose. I thought against Bucknell (in the first round) we did a horrible job of stopping the ball, and so they constantly were attacking the rim and I didn’t want Notre Dame to attack the rim. I wanted them, quite frankly, to shoot threes, rather than turn them loose in the pressure.”
After switching to zone on the defensive end, Notre Dame, which missed its first six shots of the game, connected on nine of their next 14 attempts to make it a one-possession game.
Matt Ryan came off the bench and knocked down a three on the break. Steve Vasturia followed with another triple early in the shot clock. T.J. Gibbs converted a pair from the free throw line, and Notre Dame trailed 32-29 with 4:31 to go in the half.
Elijah Macon and Miles both hit two from the charity stripe. Tarik Phillip finished a runner in the lane, and the Mountaineers pushed the advantage back to nine at 42-33.
Steve Vasturia scored back-to-back buckets to start the second half, and Notre Dame trailed, 43-39. The Irish still trailed by four at 48-44 when Bonzie Colson hit a three-pointer from the left corner.
WVU answered with a flurry of triples. Phillip hit from the left wing. Carter connected from the top, and Phillip pushed the lead back to double digits at 57-47 with a pull-up trey from the top of the arc.
“It does break your spirit,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey stated. “I’ve got a really mentally tough group, but that was a real mental test today. Because any time we thought we’d get this thing to four or get it to two possessions, somebody hit a big three or they got a putback. It’s really spirit-breaking after a while, and it does wear on our group.”
Notre Dame got as close as six when Ryan hit a trifecta from the right corner. The Irish trailed 72-66, but Carter answered with his fourth trey of the day – a step-back dagger off a pair of ball screens going to his left.
WVU came into the game averaging more than 82 points per game and set a school record for points scored on Saturday.
“There’s days, honestly, I don’t know how we get to 82, but somehow we do,” Huggins said. “Our guys play so hard, I think it forces other people to play harder, but I think also people aren’t used to playing at the pace that we play at.”
Carter finished with a team-high 24 on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor. Miles hit 8 of 15 and added 18 points. Phillip scored 12 on 4-of-6 shooting. Esa Ahmad and Macon tallied 11 apiece. Ahmad finished with a game-high nine rebounds and West Virginia outrebounded Notre Dame 34-28.
West Virginia scored 24 behind the arc on 8-of-14 shooting from the long range. The Mountaineers tallied 21 from the free throw line (21-26) and 26 in the paint.
West Virginia handed out 16 assists on 27 made field goals.
Colson led all scorers with 27 on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor including four of five behind the arc. Vasturia added 11.
West Virginia advanced to a regional semi-final for seventh time in their last 11 appearances. The Mountaineers reached the Sweet 16 in 2015.
West Virginia will play the winner of the Gonzaga and Northwestern game in the regional semi-final.
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