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Da'Sean Butler's reputation says he can handle pressure.
His team proved Sunday it could do the same.
The West Virginia men's basketball team effectively broke down Missouri's full-court pressure to claim a 68-59 win over the Tigers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and advance to the program's fourth Sweet 16 in the past six years.
The Mountaineers (29-6) will now play No. 11 seed Washington Thursday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
"It wasn't like that was the first time I saw it," said WVU head coach Bob Huggins of Missouri's pressure. "I had a pretty good idea (of what we needed to do). I knew what we did in the past (to defeat Mizzou head coach Mike Anderson)."
It was Huggins' fifth win in six tries going up against Anderson.
The veteran coach will admit a little help from Butler didn't hurt, either.
The senior scored 19 of his team's 30 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 28 while hitting 12-of-13 from the free-throw line.
The senior's biggest play, however, was a putback off a Cam Thoroughman missed free throw with 1:17 remaining to give the Mountaineers a 64-57 advantage and seal West Virginia's Sweet 16 bid.
"Nobody really boxed me out," Butler said. "So I just went up there, grabbed it and laid it in. It was just a matter of getting to the basketball."
West Virginia jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes thanks to Butler's back-to-back 3-pointers. After a Mountaineer 6-0 run, Mizzou brought the game within one, forcing Huggins to call a timeout.
Butler came out of the timeout and hit two more 3-pointers and was followed with an Ebanks jumper in the paint for a six-point Mountaineer advantage.
But Ebanks' bucket was the last WVU field goal in the final 9:03 of the first half, allowing Missouri to tie the game 25-25 with a Kim English 3-pointer with 3:10 left before the half.
West Virginia didn't hit another field goal until 3:48 into the second half when Butler assisted Truck Bryant on a fast break, giving WVU a 36-29 advantage and ending a 12:49 scoreless drought in which WVU shot 0-for-10 from the field.
"We got our first one by being mentally tough, taking care of the ball and running sets," Butler said, who has made 40 of his last 45 free-throw attempts.
Free throws kept the team in contention, however. Butler hit 5-of-6 from the line in the final 1:19 of the opening half to give WVU a five-point lead into the locker room. The team shot 25-of-33 at the charity stripe in the game compared to Missouri's 12-of-20.
The Mountaineers made 10 of 14 shots from the line in the final five minutes of the game.
"We wanted to attack their pressure," Huggins said. "When you're as aggressive as what they are, you're going to foul. We knew that."
The Bryant bucket opened the flood gates for the Mountaineers. The team hit three buckets within the next two minutes and answered on every Tiger bucket including a Kevin Jones 3-pointer from the left corner for a six-point lead.
On the ensuing possession, Butler was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three free throws for a 50-41 lead with 11:28 remaining.
Tiller was one of four Tigers to reach double-figure scoring, led by freshman Michael Dixon's 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones ended with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Jones added nine rebounds.
With the win, the Mountaineers tied the 51-year-old school record for most wins in a single season with 29 which was first set in 1959.
"I'm happy to win it, and we're going to celebrate it," Butler said. "But we need to win the next one to make it that more special."
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