Connecticut Huskies junior guard Kemba Walker scored a team-best 24 points and nailed a buzzer-beating, step-back jumper to guide the No. 9 seeded Connecticut Huskies past No. 1 Pittsburgh Panthers, 76-74, in a 2011 Big East Tournament quarterfinals game at Madison Square Garden. "The Shot Heard Around Manahttan" helped the Huskies (24-9) earn their third victory in three days and advance to the semifinals to play the winner of No. 4 Syracuse Orange/No. 5 St. John's Red Storm Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
In a showdown between two All-Big East First Teamers, Pittsburgh junior guard Ashton Gibbs scored the most points (27), but Walker earned the game's MVP by scoring 11 second-half points and sinking the game-winning bucket from just inside the 3-point line. Freshman guard Jeremy Lamb added 17 points, while sophomore forward Alex Oriakhi tallied 13 points and seven rebounds.
Pitt (27-5) led by as much as six points in the second half, but couldn't pull away from the Huskies, who took a 70-69 lead with 3:26 to go. With about a minute to go, UConn's Oriaki grabbed a Walker miss and put it back for a 2-point bucket that gave the Huskies a 74-71 advantage with 1:04 to play. Gibbs answered and tied the game at 74 by sinking his six 3-pointer of the afternoon with 49 seconds to go. On Uconn's next possession, Walker missed a jumper at the free-throw line, but sophomore forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel collected his lone rebound with 18 seconds remaining and immediate called timeout. Here's what happened next: