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When two teams of roughly equal talent play, he had said on Wednesday, the team that wants to slow things down can usually impose its will.
For 20 minutes Thursday, the Huskies managed to force West Virginia into a fast-paced game for which it is ill-suited.
But in the second half, the second-seeded Mountaineers forced 11th-seeded UW to play their style. And WVU’s rebounding and muscular style ground out a 69-56 win at the Carrier Dome.
The result sends West Virginia (30-6) on to an Elite Eight date Saturday against top-seeded Kentucky in the East Regional final.
It also ended the Huskies’ roller-coaster ride of a season after 26 wins and 10 losses.
“It’s always tough when you don’t win your last game and you have to look at the guys that have worked so hard all year and know this is it,” Romar said. “It’s very difficult. But I’m very proud of our team. For the last two months I thought we played exceptional basketball. We played against an exceptional team tonight, however, and they did a very good job against us.”
In that first half, West Virginia looked exactly like what it was: a team playing without its starting point guard, Darryl “Truck” Bryant, who was injured in practice this week.
The Mountaineers committed 13 turnovers in the first half, after averaging 11.6 a game this season.
“It was tremendously uncomfortable,” West Virginia forward Devin Ebanks said. “Especially this time of the year when we’re not used to bringing the ball up.”
With those WVU turnovers energizing their offense, the Huskies led most of the half and took a 29-27 edge into the halftime locker room.
“First half, they got us really playing fast-paced – their way of playing basketball,” WVU forward Kevin Jones said. “The second half, we kind of slowed down and got into our offense.”
First-team all-Big-East guard Da’Sean Butler scored the first five points of the second half. UW wobbled before taking a brief one-point lead with 16 minutes remaining. Then the Mountaineers took over.
After shooting 48 percent in the first half, UW shot 31 percent in the second. And there were few second chances with West Virginia grabbing 49 rebounds – the most any foe managed against Washington this season.
“We gave them open looks at the beginning of that second half,” Romar said. “The first half, we didn’t give them many open looks. They also began to attack the glass. … We had some pretty good looks at point-blank range around the rim – and we couldn’t get those down. That combination proved lethal.”
As the Mountaineers’ lead grew and the remaining minutes shrank, Romar called a timeout and tried to light a fire under his players. Moments later he lit into the officials, earning a technical.
Neither effort turned the tide.
“Sometimes it’s too late to stop the bleeding,” Romar said. “West Virginia didn’t come out and go on a 25-0 run. They just slowly, methodically continued to chip away, and the lead began to increase very slowly.”
About three minutes from the end, UW guard Isaiah Thomas fouled out for the first time this season.
“I didn’t think it was over until it was over,” Thomas said. “I never give up on my teammates. We fought. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Washington was led by forward Justin Holiday, who scored 14 points; Thomas added 13, and Venoy Overton had 10.
In his final game with the Huskies, Quincy Pondexter had seven points and two rebounds.
“I played awful,” he said. “That’s it. (Early foul trouble) might have got to me, but at the end of the day, I’m supposed to play better than that for this team to win.”
West Virginia was led by Jones, who had 18 points and eight rebounds. Butler added 14 points.
It all added up to Washington’s third disappointment in the round of 16 the past six seasons.
“The questions start: Can you ever get past the Sweet 16,” Romar said. “I never understood why people were so hard on the (NFL’s Denver) Broncos when they couldn’t quite win the championship. They did make it there. So, I feel like we have accomplished a lot, even though we didn’t make that last step this year.”
Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808
blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
