INDIANAPOLIS - West Virginia has won more than its share of games this season shooting 41 percent from the floor and getting just five 3-pointers.

In fact, in its previous eight games - and those would be the eight that included the regular-season win at Villanova and runs through both the Big East and NCAA tournaments - the Mountaineers failed to exceed at least one of those standards and four times only met or fell short of both.

It wasn't good enough against Duke in the national semifinals Saturday night, though. Not with Da'Sean Butler playing just 28 minutes and - even before he left the game with a torn knee ligament nine minutes before its conclusion - with the Mountaineers failing to establish any type of run or momentum.

Blame that - or credit it, depending upon one's viewpoint - to Duke's defense.

That was one aspect of the Blue Devils that was largely ignored prior to WVU's season-ending 78-57 loss at Lucas Oil Stadium. Talk was of Duke's shooting and rebounding abilities.

And while both were critical to Duke's success - the Blue Devils shot nearly 53 percent and outrebounded the Mountaineers by two - it was how Butler was handled by Kyle Singler that might have made the biggest difference in the outcome.

"We thought the matchup of Kyle and Butler was the key matchup for us,'' Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I hope he's not hurt badly. But even up until the time he was hurt, I thought we still played very well against him.''

Indeed, Butler made just 2-of-10 shots and got six of his 10 points on free throws - two of them on a freebie technical foul. He didn't score at all until West Virginia was down by 13 in the first half and got his second and last field goal when the Mountaineers trailed by 12.

That was two minutes before he crashed to the floor trying to drive against 7-foot-1 Brian Zoubek and was helped from the floor, his college career over.

"He can dominate a game,'' Krzyzewski said. "Kyle not only played outstanding defense, but he played outstanding offense (21 points, nine rebounds and five assists in a game-high 39 minutes). Singler had a great game tonight because he had the toughest matchup.''

When Butler left the game, of course, things got much easier for the Blue Devils. Down by 15 at the time, West Virginia would never get closer than 12 after that. The Mountaineers made a habit of digging holes like that during the season and somehow rallying, but even any remote possibility of doing that against hot-shooting Duke was lost when Butler left the floor.

"It was very frustrating for us, seeing the best player go down, especially when you're trying to make a run,'' Devin Ebanks said. "Usually whenever we're down we're pretty confident we can come back. But Duke just made shots.''

In many ways, what Duke did to West Virginia defensively is what the Mountaineers usually do to other teams, especially where feeding Butler was concerned.

"It was hard to get him the ball because they just kept switching and denying the ball. That's usually what we're supposed to do,'' said Wellington Smith, who wound up leading West Virginia in shots taken (10) for only the second time this season and in points (12) for just the third. "We just didn't do it.

"You try to get into it with a couple drives and a couple of shots. But some things happened down low that weren't called. But [Butler] just didn't get into it because he was getting denied the ball the whole time.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.