There were no mysteries here, not entering this Midwest Regional semifinal Thursday night between second-seeded Pittsburgh and third-seeded Marquette.
“Steeler basketball.” That is how Panthers coach Ben Howland described his team’s style, and that revealed all.
Defense was its calling card, a defense as stubborn and as stingy as the Steel Curtain that drove the Steelers to four Super Bowl triumphs. It had held six of Pitt’s previous seven opponents to 60 points or fewer. It was surrendering an average of just 58.7 points per game. It was holding opponents to 38.6 percent shooting overall and 30.3 percent shooting on their threes, and it was the reason the Panthers rode an 11-game winning streak into this affair.
Somehow, someway, the Golden Eagles would have to penetrate this curtain, and that is just what they did before escaping with a 77-74 victory and moving on to a Saturday meeting with top-seeded Kentucky in this region’s final.
Marquette did it with the quick-and-lethal thrusts of Dwyane Wade, who was spectacular in the second half while going 9-of-14 and scoring 20 of his 22 points, and the Golden Eagles did it by shooting 51.9 percent overall (28-of-54) and 50 percent on their threes (6-of-12).
“It’s a long year,” Wade said of his outburst, which came after he scored only two points while going 1-of-5 in the first half. “It’s a long game also. So if I have a bad first half, it doesn’t mean I’m going to have a bad second half. I keep that in mind.”
The Golden Eagles did it with the heavy leather delivered down low by forward Scott Merritt and center Robert Jackson, who ended with 17 and 16 points, respectively. They did it with Steve Novak (nine) and Karon Bradley (six) coming off a bench that has asserted itself in the tournament, and they did it with the grit and guidance of point guard Travis Diener. He hobbled through much of this affair and scored only four points, but he handed out eight assists and had one steal, one block and not a single turnover.
“It’s a little painful,” Diener said of the shin splits that had him hobbling.
“But our players never backed down,” coach Tom Crean said. They never flinched.”
There was no room for that in this game. Marquette’s resiliency manifested itself Merritt and Jackson catalyzed them through that first half, but with just over three minutes gone in the second, it was Wade who took over.
He hit a jumper from the left baseline and another from the left wing, and then came a dunk and an up-and-under layup that pushed the Golden Eagles up seven with 14 minutes remaining.
“I’m blessed to be able to do the things I can do,” Wade said.
“Dwyane Wade is just a great player,” Pitt coach Ben Howland said. “He’s a lottery pick when he comes out, no question. But what ultimately cost us was our defense. That’s what we rely on, but we were too anxious to make plays.”
But Marquette kept doing that, finally running its lead to 11 at 4:50 on a dunk by Wade, and only as it started to bleed the clock did it falter.
“We wanted to take time off and not lose our aggressiveness,” Crean said. “But they caught us a couple of times.”
Pitt caught them enough times to pull to within one with less than 30 seconds remaining, but then Wade drove from the left wing and kissed one home off the glass, giving Marquette a 75-72 lead.
“I used a move I hadn’t used all year,” he said. “I used it last year and it just came to me.”
Then Pitt guard Brandin Knight (16 points) and Merritt traded a pair of free throws, and the Golden Eagles were in a regional final for the first time since their title year of 1977.
“All year long,” Crean said, “our players worked very hard to get to the point to see just how good we really are.
“We’re at that point now.”
