"V" For Villanova, "V" For Final "IV"

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

"V" for Villanova. "V" for Victory! "V" for Final Four! Nova Nation, rejoice.

For the first time in 23 years, the Villanova Wildcats are headed to the Final Four.

Football is often called a game of inches.

Last night’s classic Elite Eight game between third seeded Villanova and No. 1 seed Pittsburgh may have been a game of centimeters.

It was a scrappy game from start to finish that literally came down to the final seconds.

Aside from an early eleven point lead by Villanova, no team ever held a sizable lead. With only a few minutes left in the second half, the Pitt Panthers were up four points with the ball looking to extend their lead to six or seven. Dwayne Anderson lunged and stole the ball, drove from mid-court, and scored on a lay-up plus the foul. He hit the foul shot to make it a one point game. Moments later he would drain a three pointer from the top of the key to put Nova back on top for good. But it wasn’t easy.

Nova had been a perfect 21-for-21 from the charity stripe, but up three, Reggie Redding stepped to the line and missed his first attempt. Under extreme pressure, he managed to sink his second attempt.

Up four, Nova allowed DeJuan Blair to break to the bucket for an uncontested lay-up.

With a two point lead, Redding, in a play I will never understand, tried to inbound the ball the length of the court to a breaking Dante Cunningham, ignoring Corey Fisher who was wide open in the corner.

The pass barely hit Cunningham on the finger-tips and he slapped it back inbounds behind him as he ran over the end-line.

The ball was recovered by Pitt and Levance Fields drew a foul from Fisher with five seconds to play.

Fields calmly sunk two free-throws to tie the game.

Out of time outs, Redding again inbounded the ball. Dangerously close to a five-second call, he found Cunningham around mid-court who handed the ball of to a cutting Scottie Reynolds who slashed to the basket, in traffic, and sunk a little floater with half a second to play.

Pitt inbounded to Fields who let a three-quarter court shot fly. Time seemed to stand still; the shot was right on the money. It hit the backboard a little too hard and bounced off; slightly softer and it might have been Pitt cutting down the nets in Boston.

The Wildcats wound up shooting an amazing 22-for-23 from the charity stripe. They might be called free-throws but they wound up costing Pitt the game. The Panthers went to the line 29 times but managed to sink only 21. Two more and they would have tied the game; three more and they would have won.

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