Associated Press
BOSTON -- Scottie Reynolds made a half-court dash for the game-winning shot with 0.5 seconds left, leading Villanova over Pittsburgh 78-76 Saturday night and back to the Final Four for the first time since its shocking run to the 1985 championship.
Dwayne Anderson scored 17 points for the third-seeded Wildcats, who responded to Pittsburgh's physical play by sinking 22 of 23 free throws in the East Regional final.
Villanova (30-7) will play the winner of the South Regional championship between North Carolina and Oklahoma. The Wildcats are the lowest-remaining seed in the NCAA tournament, though not quite as big an underdog as the eighth-seeded '85 team that was the lowest seed ever to win it all.
Sam Young scored 28 and DeJuan Blair had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Pittsburgh (31-5), the first No. 1 seed to leave the brackets this year.
It was physical. It was defensive. It was ugly.
Just the way they like it in the Big East, which will send a second team to Detroit -- with a chance at a third when Louisville plays Michigan State in the Midwest Regional final on Sunday.
With big bodies clogging the lane and 3-pointers clanging off the rim, the teams pushed and shoved their way through the first 35 minutes before they started making baskets and making plays. The lead changed 15 times -- six of them in the last six minutes, before Pittsburgh's Levance Fields hit a pair of free throws with 5.5 seconds left to make it 76-all.
Reggie Redding, who threw the ball away trying a full-court pass on the previous inbounds play, got it to Dante Cunningham this time, and he dished it to Reynolds. The Villanova guard weaved his way into the lane for a falling-down floater in traffic.
The clock expired, and the Wildcats celebrated. But the officials immediately moved to put a half-second back on the clock.
Fields took the inbounds pass and launched a 65-footer that hit the backboard but then bounced harmlessly to the floor.
Villanova coach Jay Wright went first to hug his wife and kids, then made his way to Rollie Massimino to share the moment with the last Wildcats mentor to reach the Final Four. That team beat Georgetown in an affair that was dominated by the Big East -- St. John's also made it -- just like this year's weekend in Detroit promises to be.
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