PHOENIX -- The West Virginia men's basketball team was three minutes from the Elite Eight last night but failed to finish the job and saw its season come to an abrupt and most disappointing end.

The Mountaineers led Xavier by six points with three and a half minutes to play but failed to convert free throws, and as a result the Musketeers, sparked by two huge 3-pointers by junior B.J. Raymond, rallied to win, 79-75, in overtime in an NCAA tournament West Region semifinal at the U.S. Airways Center.

West Virginia, which was the No. 7 seed in the region, finished 26-11, and advanced to the Sweet 16. It was a surprising finish considering it was picked to finish 10th in the Big East Conference and expectations were generally low.

But first-year Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins got them to buy into his defensive philosophy but the way the season ended was not easy to accept as they let this one slip away.

"It comes down to everybody doing their job and we didn't do it down the stretch," said West Virginia forward Da'Sean Butler when asked about the Musketeers' 14-4 run to close the game. "We had an opportunity to win the game, we just didn't finish the job. We had a lot of miscommunication, we had people, including me not getting back on defense.

"And they made plays when they needed to, and if you continue to let teams make plays like that, you put yourselves in position to lose."

Huggins said that while most people will point to the missed free throws -- the Mountaineers missed 4 of 6 free-throw attempts in the final three minutes of overtime, including 3 of 4 when they had the lead -- his biggest concern in the final minutes was their lapses on defense. West Virginia allowed Xavier to make three wide-open 3-pointers in the final two minutes and also allowed a key transition basket mostly because they didn't hustle down the floor.

"You look at it, we're up six and they beat us down the floor," Huggins said. "We didn't do a good job at the foul line, but we had some breakdowns and they made some big plays so you give them credit. But to be honest I was more frustrated by us not getting back on defense than missing the free throws. You are going to miss some free throws, it happens, and it is easy to point the finger at [guys] missing free throws, but we gave up some easy baskets and there is no excuse for that.

"And the reality is, we played a pretty good basketball game, we just didn't finish it."

The Mountaineers fell into a deep hole early and found themselves trailing, 28-10, with 9:10 to play in the first half. The hole was dug mostly because the Musketeers came out on fire while the Mountaineers couldn't hit a shot.

But Huggins made a few defensive adjustments and the Mountaineers began to make some shots and they were able to get back into the game with a 15-4 run to close the half. And while they trailed by seven -- 32-25 -- they felt pretty good about where they were because not much had gone their way.

West Virginia continued to chip away at Xavier's lead in the second half and finally took its first lead of the game -- 51-50 -- on a jumper by Butler with 9:45 to play. Neither team was then able to take bigger than a two-point lead the rest of the way in regulation, but the Mountaineers had a chance to take a one-point advantage with 14 seconds to play when Joe Alexander hit a layup to tie the score, 64-64, and was fouled.

But Alexander missed the free throw and then Xavier's Drew Lavender missed a jumper at the buzzer to force overtime.

"They were talking to me trying to get into my head before that free throw," said Alexander, who had 15 of his team-high 18 points (to go with 10 rebounds) in the second half. "They didn't get into my head, I just missed it."

Butler started overtime with a three-point play and the Mountaineers seemed to be off and running to the Elite Eight for the second time in four years as they quickly built a six-point lead, 71-65, on a layup by Alex Ruoff with 3:24 to play.

But as they were celebrating the shot, the Musketeers hustled down the court and got an easy fastbreak layup by Raymond to start their comeback. Wellington Smith then missed two free throws and Xavier pulled to within 71-69 on another layup, this one by Stanley Burrell.

Joe Mazzulla then made 1 of 2 free throws and Xavier tied the score at 72-72 on a 3-pointer by Lavender. Then after a layup by Mazzulla, Raymond hit the first of his 3-pointers to give Xavier a 75-74 lead with 1:22 to play. It was a lead the Musketeers would never relinquish.

"Whenever you make a comeback like that, you need a little bit of luck and we had some," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "We had a couple of balls bounce our way."