Honor Huff, with the help of the free-throw line, refused to let West Virginia get crowned on Thursday.

The Mountaineers also flashed some defense down the stretch against Stanford star freshman Ebuka Okorie.

It all led to WVU’s 82-77 overtime victory against Stanford inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, in the opening round of the College Basketball Crown tournament.

The Mountaineers (19-14) now advance to Saturday’s semifinals against either Rutgers or Creighton. The semifinal matchup tips off at 4 p.m., at the T-Mobile Arena.

WVU was 3.5 seconds away from going one-and-done in the tournament. That was until Huff earned what may have been the most bewildering foul call of the season on Stanford guard Benny Gealer about 40-feet from the basket and then canned three free throws to send the game into overtime.

The situation: Stanford’s Jeremy Dent-Smith missed the second of two free throws with 9.5 seconds left in regulation and WVU’s D.J. Thomas grabbed the rebound.

The ball quickly found Huff, who finished with 21 points to give him 2,009 for his career, and the WVU guard began to push the ball up the court.

Once he was about three or four steps past halfcourt, Huff launched what was his deepest 3-point attempt of the season. As he was going up, Gealer, for some reason, tried to strip the ball or go for a steal. Instead, he raked his hand across Huff’s arm, forcing the referees to blow a whistle and call the foul.

As he had been all game, Huff was money from the foul line. He went 3 for 3 and finished 11 of 13 from the stripe for the game to send the game into overtime.

In the overtime, Huff nearly outscored the Cardinal (20-13) by himself. The senior had eight points in the extra period, including one shot he made while falling down and he was able to throw it up at the rim just before landing on his backside.

Harlan Obioha added an and-one 3-point play that got the Mountaineers going and WVU went 8 of 11 from the free-throw line in OT to secure the win.

The foul line was crucial for the Mountaineers. They entered the tournament making 67% from the line, but finished 22 of 26 from the charity stripe against Stanford. The foul shots were especially critical, because WVU went 2 of 20 from the 3-point line, its worst shooting performance of the season from behind the arc.