Final Four Bound: Hoos Take Down Purdue In OT, 80-75

LOUISVILLE — No. 1 Virginia survived an overtime thriller against No. 3 Purdue Saturday for the South Region championship, 80-75, at the KFC Yum! Center to advance to the Final Four.

The Cavaliers (33-3) are headed to the Final Four next week in Minneapolis where they will take on Sunday’s winner out of the Midwest Region, either No. 2 Kentucky or No. 5 Auburn. It’s the first trip to the Final Four since 1984 and third in program history (1981).

“The quote we use is from the TED Talk I showed them at the beginning of the year,” said UVA coach Tony Bennett in the postgame conference. “The quote is, ‘If you learn to use it right, the adversity, it will buy you a ticket to a place you couldn’t have gone any other way.'”

Virginia embraced that quote Saturday night, playing in essentially a road game (the crowd was about 75 percent Purdue fans, and they got very loud at times), overcoming one of the greatest shooting performances in recent tournament history by Carsen Edwards, and gutting it out in a do-or-die, win-or-go-home overtime scenario.

Kyle Guy struggled in the first half, but exploded to begin the second, giving the Wahoos their first lead of the game with his first 3-pointer.

Guy added four more triples, and Ty Jerome hit two more, and the ‘Hoos led by as many as 8 after halftime, but Purdue (26-10) stormed back behind Edwards and took a 3-point lead with 16 seconds left in regulation.

Mamadi Diakite saved the season on a mad scramble, catching and quickly releasing the game-tying jumper to beat the buzzer and send it to OT. Down 70-67, Jerome was fouled and stepped to the line with a 1-and-1 with five seconds left in regulation, after Purdue’s Ryan Cline left the door open by splitting a pair of free throws on the other end with 16 ticks showing.

Jerome calmly sank the first with every Purdue fan screaming at the top of their lungs, then came up short on the second. Diakite tapped the ball into the backcourt, where Kihei Clark made what Jerome called “the play of the century,” chasing it down and alertly lasering a one-handed pass back to Diakite, who was about 12 feet away from the basket with time winding down.

“I took it, and it went in,” Diakite said of the shot that will live in UVA memory for years to come. “I was happy and ready for the next five minutes. I don’t know how to talk about it. It was unbelievable.”

Added Jerome of the sequence: “There was so much going through my mind. I didn’t really miss [the second free throw] on purpose. I short-armed and Mamadi did a good play by hitting it and Kihei made the play of the century and Mamadi being ready to shoot.

”Actually, let me add, he looked me off first, or looked Kyle off first and then looked me off,” he joked. “Then he got to Mamadi over here, and he made a great play.”

The ‘Hoos prevailed in the extra session. Matt Haarms put the Boilermakers ahead, but Jerome came down and floated one in high off the glass, out of Haarms’ reach. Nojel Easter split a pair of free throws on one end, De’Andre Hunter sank a pair on the other to give UVA a 74-73 edge with 1:43 left.

Edwards’ (and Purdue’s) final basket came with 42 ticks showing, putting the Boilermakers back up by one. Hunter responded with a drive to the hole to put the ‘Hoos up to stay with 26 seconds left.

Edwards misfired on a stepback 3-pointer on the ensuing trip, and Guy was fouled on the rebound with 5.7 seconds to go, and added a pair of free throws to make it a 3-point game.

Purdue turned the ball over as an Edwards pass was tipped and deflected off of one of his teammates, and the possession was awarded to the Cavaliers. After a video review, 2.1 seconds were put on the clock, and Clark put the icing on the Final Four cake with two sealing free throws, as the Wahoos began to celebrate.

Purdue was on fire from deep in the early going, hitting four of its first five shots — three of them were from beyond the arc. The Boilermakers added three more deep balls to push their lead to double digits, 22-12, midway through the opening half, before the Cavaliers fought their way back.

Virginia went on a 12-3 run over the following five minutes of play — highlighted by a pair of Ty Jerome 3-pointers — to cut it to one, 25-24, with 4:46 left until the break.

Diakite had a big first half, and finished it off with a bucket off a nice feed from Clark (who hustled to get his own rebound and set up the shot) with a minute to go, and the ‘Hoos went into the locker room down 30-29.

The Boilermakers made 8 triples (in 19 tries) over the opening 20 minutes, while Virginia kept pace by outscoring them in the paint, 14-2.

There was a scary moment with just over two minutes to play, when Guy screamed in pain and went to the floor, grabbing his leg, but a few seconds later he hopped right up and made it to the sideline under his own power before returning to the floor for the final play of the half.

“I stepped on someone’s foot, I don’t know, and I heard it pop,” recalled Guy. “That’s kind of mostly why I was, you know, rolling around like I was, because I was really scared. But I thought what was best for me was to get up and let everybody know I was fine and let [trainer Ethan Saliba] assess it.”

Purdue shot 49 percent for the game (27 for 55) and 44 percent from behind the 3-point line. Edwards led all scorers, shooting 14 for 25 overall and 10 for 19 from downtown and matching his career high of 42 points (which he set earlier in this tournament against Villanova). No other Purdue player had more than 7 points on the night.

“That was the best performance I’ve ever seen,” Jerome said of Edwards’ night. “That was the best performance I’ve ever played against. Kihei and Dre are both great on-ball defenders and he just hit everything. Going to the basket, step-back threes, unbelievable.”

Added Guy: “I told [Edwards] after the game that I had a lot of respect for him and that he’s a bad dude, and he’s got nothing to hang his head on. … It was his night, he played fantastic.”

Bennett chimed in as well.

“He made me rip my play card in half when he hit the shot off the glass,” said the coach. “I just ripped it in half.”

Luckily for the ‘Hoos, Edwards’ night ultimately belonged to Virginia.

Guy led the way with 25 points (21 of them after halftime) and a team-best 10 rebounds, while Jerome added 24 points, 5 boards and 7 assists. Diakite finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Virginia shot 42 percent for the game, 33 percent from 3-point land, and 85 percent (17 of 20) from the charity stripe.

Next stop — or, final stop — Minneapolis.