Xavier's Musketeers moved from the Sweet 16 into the Elite 8 with a hard fought victory over an overachieving West Virginia squad, 79-75.
XU jumped out to a 28-10 lead early then saw the Mountaineers catch up and punch it out  toe to tow for the entire second half. Coach Bob Huggins of WVA seemed to be outcoaching XU's Miller with a match up zone that seemed to neutralize the antics of XU's 5 ft. 6 in. guard, Drew Lavender. XU lucked out at the end of regulation when WVA's best scorer, Joe Alexander, missed a free throw that would have given WVA a 3 point lead. XU went down and tied it up and seemed to be able to do nothing on the last two possessions when they had a chance to win it.
In the OT, WVA came out fast and went up by 6, but then their leading scorer fouled out and XU came back and hit 3 3 pointers in the last 1:50 to go ahead by 2. The last  big play was a 3 pointer by Raymond of XU on a preset play where XU had .02 on the shot clock and, on the inbounds play the whole team, except Raymond ran away from the basket and Raymond dropped back on the far side...got the pass, shot the 3..and it was over except for some foul shots at the end which XU made, mostly.
Good game by XU to come back, good game by WVA but they missed a couple of timely foul shots that let XU stay around.
It must be prayer is all I can figure, 'cause either team could have won it. Neither deserved to lose.
A great win for the Muskies!