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Louisville coach Rick Pitino watches the final moments of a win over West Virginia while his team celebrates behind him. The Cardinals beat the Mountaineers, 93-85 in overtime on Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico and advanced to the Final Four next weekend in St. Louis.

Louisville pulled within arm’s distance many times in the second half, but on every occasion, Johannes Herber or Kevin Pittsnogle (six 3-pointers, 25 points) made 3s to keep the Mountaineers ahead.

Not until O’Bannon, the region’s most valuable player, slithered through the defense and made a layup with 38 seconds left did Louisville tie it at 77 — the first tie since 3-all. And not until overtime began did West Virginia finally start missing.

“I wouldn’t say we were worn out,” Pittsnogle said. “We still had a lot of gas left. We just couldn’t make the key plays when we had to make them.”

Led by Dean’s seventh 3-pointer and four free throws by O’Bannon, the Cardinals opened it up in overtime.

When the buzzer sounded, Pitino started hugging players, and O’Bannon chucked the ball toward the ceiling at The Pit, which hosted a game almost as exciting as the 1983 final when Jim Valvano and North Carolina State won their improbable championship.

“Just to come out and accomplish something ... of this magnitude just makes it that much sweeter,” O’Bannon said.

Louisville made its eighth Final Four despite playing the final 4:02 of regulation and overtime without arguably its best player, Francisco Garcia, who couldn’t avoid the fouls as the Cardinals started trapping, pressing, doing whatever they could to disrupt the torrid Mountaineers.

Both teams had chances to win in regulation. J.D. Collins had his 10-foot jumper swatted by Brandon Jenkins, then in transition, Dean got a good look just before the buzzer, but the shot rimmed off.

Once Louisville’s domination of overtime was complete, the stats didn’t seem so lopsided. Sure, the Mountaineers made more 3s — 18-to-11 to combine for an NCAA tournament record — but the overall field-goal shooting was 55.3 percent for West Virginia to 55.2 to Louisville. Percentages like that almost always guarantee victory in modern-day hoops.

Only one team could win, though, and the Mountaineers were sent home, coming oh, so close to their first trip to the Final Four since Jerry West donned the gold and blue.

“The scoreboard is the only place we lost today,” Beilein said.

Louisville, meanwhile, is moving on. The Cardinals made it back to the Final Four for the first time since 1986, when Denny Crum and Pervis Ellison led them to their second national title.

Now, it’s Pitino trying to bring his second national championship back to the Bluegrass — but this time to Louisville, not Kentucky.

“My pride level for this basketball team is as high as it has ever been,” he said.

Notes: The 33 wins match Louisville’s high for a season. The Cardinals won 33 en route to the national title in 1980. ... The last No. 4 seed to advance to the Final Four was Ohio State in 1999. ... West Virginia was trying to become the highest-seeded team to make the Final Four since LSU (11th) in 1986.

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