Butler shakes off sore hand, second-seeded West Virginia beats 11th-seeded Washington 69-56

Butler, West Virginia beat Washington 69-56

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Da’Sean Butler shook off a sore right hand and helped West Virginia shake off feisty Washington to reach the East Regional finals.

Butler kept playing after hurting himself midway through the second half and scored 14 points while Kevin Jones added 18 and eight rebounds in leading the second-seeded Mountaineers over the 11th-seeded Huskies 69-56 Thursday night.

Coach Bob Huggins’ Big East champions (30-6) won their ninth in a row and set a school record for victories, surpassing the mark set by the Jerry West-led 1958-59 team that lost in the NCAA championship game.

Justin Holiday scored 14 and added eight rebounds for the Huskies (26-10), who were at a disadvantage after leading scorer Quincy Pondexter picked up his third foul with 4:27 left in the first half. Pondexter didn’t score his first basket until 2:30 into the second half, and finished with seven points.

Point guard Isaiah Thomas scored 13 before fouling out with 2:41 left. The Huskies had a nine-game win streak snapped. They were trying to become only the fourth school seeded 11th or lower to reach the round of eight.

The Mountaineers won their first game since point guard Darryl Bryant broke a bone in his right foot. And it appeared to take an entire half for West Virginia to find its rhythm on offense.

Trailing by as many as six points late in the first half, the Mountaineers went ahead for good with 14:14 left when Jones hit a 3-pointer to make it 39-37. That was part of an 11-1 spurt that was capped by Wellington Smith’s putback after Casey Mitchell missed a shot from the outside.