Utah Halts West Virginia 65-62

March 19, 1998 / 11:42 PM EST / CBS/AP

Jarrod West couldn't come up with another miracle for West Virginia, and this time, he even had three chances.

Michael Doleac made two free throws with 6.5 seconds remaining and West missed a 3-pointer as time expired as Utah held off the Mountaineers 65-62 in the West Regional semifinals Thursday night.

"I had good looks at them, they just didn't fall down for me," said a tearful West, whose final 3-pointer would have forced overtime.

"I thought he made it," Doleac said. "It hit the front rim. Thank God the clock ran out, their pressure gets to you."

Andre Miller, guarding West on the final play, said his main concern was to not commit a foul.

"If he makes it, it's OK," Miller said. "If it did go into overtime, we probably would have won."

Utah, seeded third, faces the winner of the other semifinal between top-seeded Arizona and No. 4 Maryland on Saturday with a spot in the Final Four at stake.

"I hope we've got a couple cards left in the deck to play," Utah coach Rick Majerus said. "We got a bounce here or there.

"I can't tell you how happy I am. I'm emotionally drained. I told the kids to enjoy it."

Even the presence of Jerry West, the most famous West Virginia alumnus of them all, couldn't help the 10th-seeded Mountaineers record another upset.

Jarrod West's 3-point bank shot in the final second last Saturday gave the Mountaineers a 75-74 victory over second-seeded Cincinnati. But West misfired three times in the last minute of this game.

Doleac had 25 points and nine rebounds and Miller had 14 points and eight assists for the Utes (28-3), who won despite not scoring a field goal in the final 9:05.

Brent Solheim led West Virginia (24-9) with 16 points and seven rebounds. Damian Owens had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists and West added 11 points for the Mountaineers, who start five seniors.

West Virginia hadn't won as many as two NCAA tournament games between 1959 and this year.

"People told us and coach (Gale Catlett) told us we did something great when we made it past Cincinnati," Owens said. "We had bigger goals, that's all we can think about right now."

Doleac made two free throws with 4:45 left to give Utah a 60-56 lead, and another pair with 3:27 remaining to make it 63-58.

However, Solheim, a 58.3 percent foul shooter, made two free throws with 2:17 left and two more with 1:50 to go, drawing the Mountaineers within one point.

Utah then turned the ball over, giving West Virginia a chance to take its first lead since the Mountaineers were up 17-15 midway through the first half.

But West missed from 3-point range with a minute to play as the shot clock expired.

Utah's Drew Hansen missed wo free throws three seconds later, but West couldn't connect on a 15-foot jumper with 37 seconds to go.

The Mountaineers elected not to foul, allowing the Utes to run the clock down before Doleac was finally fouled with 6.5 seconds left. He then hit both free throws, making him 13-of-14 in the game.

"We still had enough time to tie or win the game," Catlett said. "We couldn't convert at the end. We wanted to foul (earlier), but we wanted to foul selected people. For some reason, we just didn't get to the right person.

"We're trying to get the ball with the fullcourt press, we thought we could get the ball on a charge or a turnover. We almost did."

Utah, which lost to Kentucky in the West Regional final last year, made 22-of-27 free throws to 10-of-16 for West Virginia, which entered having made just 61.3 percent of its foul shots.

"We missed our free throws and they made theirs, and that's unfortunate," Catlett said. "I think if we made our free throws, we would have won the game.

"We outshot 'em from the field, we outrebounded them, the press disrupted them, but we didn't make our free throws."

The Utes didn't make a basket after Miller's 3-pointer with 9:05 remaining gave them a 53-48 lead, but they did enough at the foul line and on defense to prevail.

A foul shot by Doleac with 8:28 remaining gave Utah a 58-50 lead equaling its largest but the Mountaineers scored the next six points to draw within two.

Utah hasn't reached the Final Four since 1966. Sparked by Jerry West, the Mountaineers last got there in 1959, reaching the championship game before losing to California 71-70.

Miller's three-point play with 36 seconds left gave the Utes a 34-28 halftime lead.

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