MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This season of Mountaineer Basketball has had all of the elements to make for a season of excitement. It’s been a year of sleeper first halves, Top 10 matchups, edge-of-your-seat second halves, overtime thrillers, and Bob Huggins pullovers.

West Virginia’s regular season finale yesterday was no exception to the trend, as they knocked off the No. 9 Villanova Wildcats 68-66 in overtime play.

Per usual, there was nothing easy about it. The boys struggled to find their stride the first half, and had a lot of catching up to do in the second.

In keeping with the norm, the Man in the Pullover wasn’t too pleased with his team’s first half performance.

“We were so bad the first half,” said Huggins. “We were 2 for 10 from the foul line. We didn’t handle the ball. We didn’t pass the ball very well. This is the best scoring team in the league and we held them to 29 points.”

Is anyone else starting to feel a sense of déjà vu?

I feel like I’ve written this same article twice weekly since November. The only thing that changes game-to-game is the date, the venue and the opponent.

No matter how intense the halftime locker room lecture is, or how much they practice, or how many times they make the fans sweat it out, they keep doing the same thing nearly every game.

And for whatever reason, it seems to work for them most of the time. I think this team likes to leave us breathless and wondering what the end result will be.

I’ll say one thing--it certainly makes my game days more interesting, to say the least.

On this particular game day, there was much to sweat about. The Mountaineers remained scoreless for the first seven minutes of play, until Deniz Kilicli stepped in and got things rolling.

After what seemed like an endless 20 minutes, WVU entered the locker room only banking 6 of 25 from the floor for 16 points—leaving the Wildcats with a 13-point advantage.

But they wouldn’t have it for long. They came out guns blazing in the second half, using an 18-5 run to tie up the score. A game of back-and-forth shooting continued until the closing seconds of the game.

With the score tied at 60, Devin Ebanks had the chance to be the hero of the day. But in the heat of the moment, he believed his team was up by one, and fired what appeared to be an aimless ball into the air—leaving a stunned coach watching in disbelief from the sidelines, and considering integrating scoreboard 101 into his practice sessions.

“I said, ‘Devin, man what are you doing taking that shot?’ He said, ‘I thought we were up by one.’
 

I said, ‘That’s why they make pretty elaborate scoreboards these days,’” said Huggins.

And with that, it was off to overtime they went.

Kevin Jones started off strong in OT with a pair of baskets to pull his team ahead. Da’Sean Butler added some steam from the free throw line, making the score 66-63.

But Villanova wasn’t quite done with West Virginia, and they weren’t leaving without a fight. Corey Stokes made a big three with 35 seconds on the clock, tying up the score once again.

But the game was over, whether they realized it or not. Reynolds took what could have been a game-winning shot in the final seconds, but his aim was amiss. “It scared me to death that he got that good of a look at the end of the game,” said Huggins.

Senior Da’Sean Butler finished the regular season with 21 points, banking 13 of 14 from the free throw line. Wellington Smith had 15 points, and Devin Ebanks contributed 12.

The 24-6 team locked up a third seed position in the BIG EAST tournament, which gives the Mountaineers a double-bye and delaying their debut at Madison Square Garden until Thursday.

But their coach isn’t convinced that’s to West Virginia’s advantage.

“You get rewarded with a double bye and you get to play Marquette, Louisville or Connecticut,” said Huggins. “This league is just so hard. I don’t like the double bye. I don’t like sitting there for two games while people are playing. But if you can get through the first one, it definitely gives you a better chance to get through the whole tournament."

And if we’ve learned anything from the regular season, it’s a safe bet there will be plenty of sweat, a lot of excitement, and maybe even a lucky pullover or two.