BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Everyone got it right.

Well, about halfway right.

The talk in the preview to this one should have been about defense, the discussion should have been about limiting an opponent's offense and not what happens when your squad possesses the basketball.

It should have been about West Virginia's roll-up-your-sleeves, half-court defense and not this "Fastest 40 Minutes In Basketball" method Missouri makes a point of trumpeting.

For it was that no-frills approach that West Virginia (29-6) rode to a 68-59 victory against Missouri (23-11) Sunday in an NCAA tournament second-round East Region game at the HSBC Arena.

The win moved the Mountaineers into the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in their past six tournament appearances. They will play No. 11 seed Washington (26-9) Thursday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins -- who should catch a moonlighting paycheck as a pitchman for the Big East Conference, because he seemingly tells anyone who will listen how strong the league is -- watched his team ramble onto the floor with all the talk about what Missouri was going to do to them from a defensive standpoint.

And what did the Mountaineers go out and do?

They got up into Missouri's head in the half-court, holding the Tigers to 20-for-61 shooting from the floor -- 10 for 35 in the second half -- in a game that never broke wide open.

The game's pace suited West Virginia perfectly.

"I said that we're going to guard and they are going to have a hard time scoring against us," Huggins said of a Missouri team that prefers a frenetic on-floor existence. "Everybody has a hard time scoring against us. ... We have gotten a lot better over the last three weeks to a month. We've gotten a whole lot better defensively."

The Mountaineers had to get better defensively within the course of this game because they had problems on offense. They went a span of 12 minutes, 55 seconds that bridged halftime without a field goal, and then went the final 7:49 with just two field goals.

Even with all that offensive deficiency, there were two constants: The Mountaineers kept defending and, when they needed a play, senior swingman Da'Sean Butler made one.

Butler scored 28 points, converting 12 of his 13 free throws and hammering home four 3-pointers, with all of those coming in the first half. The Mountaineers jumped ahead, 8-0, watched the lead evaporate to 15-14 and then led, 30-25, at halftime. Butler had 19 points at the half and scored 13 of his team's final 15 first-half points.

From Missouri coach Mike Anderson's viewpoint, Butler was one of the primary reasons his Tigers won't be returning to New York for another round of the tournament.

"I thought it was a tremendous effort by our guys, and of course I think the guy that had the statement on his game was Da'Sean Butler," Anderson said. "I think he was the big catalyst for the team, making big plays for West Virginia."

Making big plays is rather ordinary for Butler. He has distinguished himself as a go-to guy late in games, making six winning baskets this season. But against Missouri, there wasn't as steep of a curve, not an upsurge at the end of the game.

Instead, Butler was steady all the way through.

"He's been our leader throughout the whole season," sophomore forward Kevin Jones said of Butler. "We look to him for a lot of things, and he's just been able to come through throughout the whole season."

While Michael Dixon, who scored 15 points, was leading the Tigers, Butler continued to pace the Mountaineers in the second half. He came up with an offensive rebound and putback on a Cam Thoroughman missed free throw with 1:18 left for the clincher, putting the Mountaineers up, 64-57.

"We're used to Cam missing them," Huggins said in jest. "It may have been a surprise to them. It wasn't to us."

Same thing goes for that defense West Virginia played against the Tigers.

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