Either Gonzaga or Xavier will make first trip to Final Four

SAN JOSE - Mark Few has now won more NCAA tournament games than any other men's coach who hasn't been to the Final Four. It's a record he'd prefer not to own, and he will get a chance to shed it Saturday.

Few's Gonzaga Bulldogs, the top seed in the West Region, had to grind, adjust and sweat throughout their game against No. 4 West Virginia - including a grueling final 37-second possession by the Mountaineers. Gonzaga survived all of it, winning 61-58 at SAP Center on Thursday night to advance to the regional final against upstart Xavier.

“I don't know that I have a monkey on my back,” Few said after the win, his 24th in the tournament. “I certainly don't wake up with one or walk around with one. … It would be phenomenal to get these guys, this team that I love deeply, the experience to go to a Final Four.”

The Bulldogs (35-1) are back in the Elite Eight for the second time in three years, and the third time overall. But they had to score the final six points of Thursday's game to get there.

Jevon Carter's 3-pointer with 1:47 left had given the Mountaineers a 58-55 lead, raising the specter of another earlier-than-expected exit by Gonzaga. But the Bulldogs' Nigel Williams-Goss made a pair of free throws at 1:30, and after an excruciating series of missed field goals and free throws at the other end, Gonzaga's Jordan Mathews blasted a 3-pointer from the left corner to give his team the lead at 60-58.

Silas Melson made one of two free throws with 37 seconds left to push the lead to three. And then Gonzaga's defense bore down.

Carter, who led all scorers with 21 points, launched a 3-point attempt. He missed, but teammate Daxter Miles Jr. snatched the rebound and got it back to Carter. The junior guard missed again; this time West Virginia's Nathan Adrian grabbed the board. But as the clock wound down, the Bulldogs flared out to defend the 3-point line and, while the Mountaineers fans went nuts with exasperation, their team failed to get off another shot before the final buzzer.

“That was a mistake on my behalf,” Carter said. “I knew they had a lot of guys at the top. I should have drove to the basket, but knowing it was a three-point game, I tried to go for the three, since I'd been hitting. But if I'm in that position again I'll take it to the basket.”

Few had a different perspective. “I thought we did a great job,” he said.

The Gonzaga coach elaborated: “It was disappointing we didn't dig out any of those rebounds, but at the same time we flooded out to those shooters after the rebounds. Usually after you give up an offensive rebound, that kick-out three is what kills you. And I just vividly remember our guys racing out to the three line right when the West Virginia kid got the offensive rebound.”

The Mountaineers (28-9) missed their final five shots.

This game was billed as a battle between “Press Virginia,” with its withering full-court defense, and Gonzaga's huge height advantage up front.

As it turned out, neither was a decisive factor.

The Mountaineers did press virtually all game, but the Bulldogs had little trouble with it. Williams-Goss and Mathews, both superb ball handlers, repeatedly broke the press on the dribbles. When they were trapped, the Gonzaga big men were able to help out with their passing.

On the other end of the court, West Virginia outrebounded Gonzaga 41-34 despite the presence of Bulldogs big men Przemek Karnowski (7-foot-1), Zach Collins (7-0) and Killian Tillie (6-10).

Granted, those Gonzaga bigs did influence a lot of shots. And with the Bulldogs guarding the perimeter tenaciously at the same time, West Virginia wound up shooting just 26.7 percent (16 of 60) while making only 1 of 11 shots from behind the arc.

“We had a shoot-around walk-through today and made every shot,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins lamented. “We had shots (during the game). We just didn't make them. Their size bothers everybody around the rim. When you're driving at the goal and you run into a 7-foot-1, 300-and-whatever-he-is, it's hard to score.”

And yet the Mountaineers kept it close all night. (Gonzaga's biggest lead was eight points, about 6 minutes into the second half.)

They did it by proving their half-court defense was just as formidable as that full-court assault. West Virginia blocked seven shots, spread among five different players.

With both teams playing a physical style, the game frequently devolved into a free-throw contest. Gonzaga made 21 of 32. West Virginia made 21 of 29. No one fouled out, but three players on each team wound up with four fouls.

That included Williams-Goss, who got his fourth with 8:02 remaining.

The West Coast Conference Player of the Year never found his flow, finishing with 10 points, two assists and five turnovers.

Mathews, the Cal transfer, helped pick up the slack with three big 3-pointers and 13 points. The Polish-born Karnowski and Johnathan Williams also scored 13 apiece. West Virginia's Miles had a career-high 10 rebounds.

“Hey, that was just an absolute war,” Few said. “Rock fight. However you want to describe it. I men, those are two really, really tough teams, two really physical teams that laid it out there on the line.”

XAVIER 73, ARIZONA 71

The double-digit seeds aren't done yet.

No. 11 Xavier stunned No. 2 Arizona in Thursday's nightcap at SAP Center, finishing the game on a 12-2 run after Parker Jackson-Cartwright had given the Wildcats a 69-61 lead with 3:44 remaining. Trevon Bluiett and Malcolm Bernard each scored five points for the Musketeers down the stretch, and Blueitt fed 6-10 post player Sean O'Mara inside for the game-winning basket with 40 seconds left.

Arizona's Allonzo Trier missed a 3-point attempt with 8 seconds remaining, and Bernard grabbed the rebound.

Blueitt led all scorers with 25 points for Xavier, which shot 52.8 percent as a team. Trier had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats, while center Dusan Ristic added 17 points. Arizona launched 27 3-point shots and made just seven.

This will be Xavier's third trip to the Round of Eight, and its first since 2008. Like Gonzaga, the Musketeers have never played in the Final Four.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter @Skinny_Post.