Crazy finish sends Butler to Sweet 16, 71-70

“This game is a really good example of the fact that that anything can happen,” said Howard.

And it did in record time.

First Pitt had it won. Then Butler. Then Pitt. Then Butler again. All in the final 2.2 seconds.

With Pitt leading 69-68 and the clock ticking down, Butler’s Shawn Vanzant drew the defense with a drive down the right side and fed Andrew Smith for a layup that put Butler up, 70-69, with 2.2 seconds left.

Pittsburgh, out of timeouts, rushed the ball up the floor. As Gilbert Brown crossed mid-court, trying to free himself for a desperation shot, Mack cut Brown off, forcing him out of bounds, and drawing a foul with 1.4 seconds left. As Brown went to the line, Butler fans booed lustily, but there was little question about the infraction.

“I realized I made the mistake of my life,” Mack said.

With Brown at the foul line and officials reviewing the play, Mack stood inches from the Pittsburgh senior.

“We just had a regular conversation. I just asked him where he was from,” Mack said. “I told him I was from Lexington [Kentucky], that I had a 3.0 [grade-point-average], stuff like that.”

Brown, a 79 percent free-throw shooter, hit the first to tie it, 70-70. But when he missed the second, Howard came down with the rebound and Robinson draped on his back, drawing a foul with .8 seconds left.

“I was really surprised,” Howard said. “I felt his arm came across me.”

Howard, a 78 percent free-throw shooter, drilled the first and missed the second on purpose, preventing Pittsburgh from setting up a final shot.

“I had probably the worst foul in Butler history,” Mack said. “But then the dude from Pittsburgh made up for me.”

Afterward much attention was focused on the referees. But neither coach complained.

“We’re not one to focus on one play,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I guess it’s going to get a lot of talk. It seems already from the questions and what was going on, but we’re not going to blame the officials.”

Referees have received plenty of negtive attention this post-season, starting with a blown call, missed by all three officials, in the Big East tournament.

“If we get it right, we’re good. If we get it wrong, we’re deadbeats and we’re all over SportsCenter,” crew chief John Higgins said. “We did what we think is correct.”

Some questioned the need to call a foul on Robinson, given that Howard was 90 feet from his own basket with less than a second to go. But there was little debate that the call was correct.

“It just happened to be a crucial part of the game,” Higgins said. “You have to do what you have to do as an official.”

The flip-side of the argument: Why would Robinson contest a rebound in the final second when there was nothing to gain?

“It was a dumb play and I wasn’t thinking at all,” the junior forward said. “I blame myself. I’m smarter than that.”

The finish made a hero of Howard for the second time in three days. On Thursday, his buzzer-beating layup gave Butler a 60-58 victory over Old Dominion.

“One of the things that needs to be made very clear, is that we’re not a better basketball team than Old Dominion or Pittsburgh,” Butler coach Brad Stewart said. “We just had the ball last.”

With the victory, Butler (25-9) advances to a Sweet 16 match-up, Thursday in New Orleans against No. 4 Wisconsin (25-8).

Saturday’s wild finish culminated a spectacular game in which Mack (30 points) and Howard (16 points, 6 rebounds) battled Pitt standouts Brown (24 points), who hit four of five 3-pointers and Robinson (16 points), who hit seven of nine shots.

Pittsburgh (28-6) out-rebounded Butler, 33-22, behind Gary McGhee (6 points, 7 rebounds) and Brad Wanamaker (8 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds) and out-shot the Bulldogs, 56 percent to 46. But Butler compensated by taking care of the ball (six turnovers) and making 12 3-pointers, including seven by Mack in 12 tries.

Butler came out firing. Howard hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions and Mack added two more. When Mack sliced through the Pitt defense and scored on a layup, he gave the Bulldogs a 30-18 lead with 6 minutes left in the first half.

Pitt answered with an 11-0 run that included a four-point possession when McGhee hit a free throw, missed the second, but Lamar Patterson got the rebound and fed Ashton Gibbs (11 points) for a 3-pointer. Brown followed with a 3-pointer and another jumper to get the Panthers to within a point, 30-29.

But Butler responded with another surge, Mack hitting two more 3-pointers and Howard adding a dunk as the Bulldogs took a 38-30 lead into the locker room, after scoring 24 of their points from the arc, on 8-of-16 shooting.

“We lost that game in the first half,” said Brown. “[And] that last 2.5 could have been avoided if I made that free throw.”

Early in the second half, Mack hit another 3-pointer for a 41-32. But Pitt answered with another 11-0 run, ignited by a 3-pointer from Brown, and followed by a pair of buckets each from Nasir Robinson and Brad Wanamaker as the Panthers took their first lead since the opening minutes, 43-41.

It remained close the rest of the way, neither team leading by more than five points, until the final preposterous seconds.

“Everybody remembers the losses,” Dixon said. “We’ve won lot of games in this tournament as well.”

It was the fourth straight year, Pittsburgh was beaten by a lower seed. The last three came by a combined six points, a particularly painful legacy for seniors Brown, McGhee, and Wanamaker.

“All the losses are tough. For this one to be the end of it all for me at Pittsburgh, this may be the toughest,” Wanamaker said. “I am overwhelmed with emotions right now. I just love my teammates. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here today.”

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