Da'Sean Butler scored 19 of his game-high 28 points in the first half to lead two-seeded West Virginia (29-6) to a 68-59 victory over the tenth-seeded Missouri Tigers (23-11) in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament.

Butler's hot start put Missouri down early. Both teams would agree it was Butler's handling of Mizzou's pressure defense that set the tone for the game.

"We wanted to attack their pressure," Huggins said. "When you are as aggressive as what they are, you're going to foul some. And we knew that. I think you don't foul when you don't attack. And we wanted to be in an attack mode and continue to attack them."

Butler hit four of seven threes and added seven of eight free throws late to lead the West Virginia attack early.

"He put his stamp on the game, said senior J.T. Tiller. "So you can't take anything away from him. He's a good player."

Mizzou's defense forced just ten turnovers, half of what the Tigers averaged on the season. Butler's ball-handling and decision-making made the difference.

“We didn’t really panic,” Butler said. “We just stepped up to the challenge and played like men and broke the press.”

As Missouri's defense was the talk of Buffalo before the game. West Virginia's defense dominated the discussion after it. The Tigers shot or 20 of 61 from the field. Mizzou wasn't any better from the free throw line shooting just 12 of 20.

"It's tough, it's going to be tough to win when you have guys shoot 2 for 9, 3 for 8, another 2 for 9," said Tigers senior Keith Ramsey. "So, I mean, if those shots would have fell we would probably talking about us winning."

Freshman guard Michael Dixon led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points off of the bench. Dixon's hot shooting in the first 20 minutes kept Mizzou close when West Virginia's Butler was scoring at will.

"I thought he (Dixon) was real pivotal in what took place today, as we made a run back in the game," said Anderson. "We got down and he made some key shots, some key plays for us. Again, he didn't look like a freshman out there."

A 5-0 scoring run at the end of the first-half gave the Mountaineers a five point lead into the break. Early in the second-half Miuzzou cut the lead to two. That was as close as the Tigers would get the rest of the game.

Missouri's Tiller added 13 points for the Tigers. Seniors Tiller, Zaire Taylor and Keith Ramsey followed up a 31-win season with a 23-win season and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

"They will be dearly missed because of the dearly missed because of the impact they had on the program," said Anderson. "A lot of guys are about "me", these guys were about the team."

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