Xavier wins in OT, advances with North Carolina

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Xavier Musketeers used a pair of clutch three-pointers from B.J. Raymond to beat West Virginia 79-75 in overtime on Thursday and join North Carolina, Louisville and UCLA in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

North Carolina, the top seed overall in the 65-team U.S. college basketball championship, rolled to a 68-47 home win over fourth seed Washington State.

Louisville topped Tennessee 79-60 in the other game in Charlotte, North Carolina, and go on meet North Carolina on Saturday for the East Regional title.

UCLA overcame Western Kentucky 88-78 to set up a Saturday meeting with Xavier for the West Regional championship.

Xavier, seeded third in the West, trailed West Virginia 74-72 in the five-minute extra period when Raymond hit a long jumper to give the Musketeers a 75-74 lead with 1:15 to play.

The seventh-seeded Mountaineers played tight defense to keep it a one-point game, with Wellington Smith swatting away a layup attempt with two seconds on the time clock.

Stanley Burrell had trouble finding a target to inbound to until he spotted Raymond on the opposite side of the floor. He heaved a perfect pass to the shooter, who sank the long jumper with 31.4 seconds left to put Xavier on top 78-74.

"The play was actually to give Josh (Duncan) a lob," Raymond told reporters. "But my man kind of dropped off on him to take away the lob. I kind of squeaked out behind the three (point line) and Stan saw me and made a great pass."

West Virginia trailed by 18 points in the first half before scrambling back. It had a chance to push ahead at the end of regulation after forward Joe Alexander banked one off the glass to tie it at 64-64 and was fouled in the process.