With West Virginia’s Jarmon Durisseau-Collins flying in his face, Notre Dame’s Colin Falls, positioned along the left baseline, took the pass from teammate Chris Quinn, squared up and fired.
The swish of Falls’ three-pointer with 15 seconds left held up to give the Irish a 65-64 victory over the Mountaineers (15-13) in the opening round of the Big East tournament Wednesday night.
“Early in the season, I missed a game-tying shot against Indiana,” the freshman from Loyola Academy said. “[Coach Mike Brey] told me not to worry about it. He has full confidence in me to shoot the ball.”
After Falls’ shot, Torrian Jones prevented Joe Herber from getting a good look on a potential buzzer-beater to assure the victory. The Irish (17-11) face ninth-ranked Connecticut in the second round Thursday. The game will air on ESPN2 at 6 p.m.
The victory was a lungful of air for a team that was watching its NCAA tournament hopes slowly suffocated by the Mountaineers. “We’ve been read our last rites at least three or four times this season,” Brey said. “And we continually stay alive.”
Although the Huskies (24-6, 12-4) are formidable opponents, they are not unbeatable: Notre Dame split two games with them this season.
TCU 64, MARQUETTE 62: A year after reaching the NCAA Final Four, Marquette is staring at the wrong set of initials.
After falling to Texas Christian during the opening round of the Conference USA tournament, the Golden Eagles (17-11) almost surely are headed for the NIT.
It would be the first time since Minnesota in 1998 that a Final Four team one season did not advance to the NCAA field the next year. TCU (12-16) plays DePaul on Thursday.
Other scores
Conference USA first round
– Charlotte 78, Tulane 48
– Louisville 61, East Carolina 54
– Saint Louis 52, Southern Miss. 46
Big East first round
– Boston College 68, Georgetown 57
– Villanova 61, Seton Hall 60
– Virginia Tech 61, Rutgers 58
Atlantic 10 first round
– Duquesne 79, Massachusetts 76
– Rhode Island 55, La Salle 42
– Richmond 67, Fordham 47
– Xavier 90, St. Bonaventure 64
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Thursday’s games
Atlantic 10 Conference quarterfinals
Saint Joseph’s vs. Xavier, 11 a.m.
Atlantic Coast Conference first round
Virginia vs. Clemson, 6 p.m., ESPN
Big East Conference quarterfinals
– Pitt vs. Virginia Tech, 11 a.m., ESPN2
– Syracuse vs. B.C., 1:30 p.m., ESPN2
– Providence vs. Villanova, 8:30 p.m.,
ESPN
Conference USA quarterfinals
– UAB vs. Charlotte, noon
– DePaul vs. Texas Christian, 2:30 p.m.
– Cincinnati vs. Louisville, 6 p.m.
– Memphis vs. Saint Louis, 8:30 p.m.
Pac-10 first round
– Stanford vs. Wash. St., 2 p.m., FSN