MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pat White scored on a 50-yard run with 1:36 remaining and also threw two touchdown passes to help No. 6 West Virginia beat Louisville 38-31 on Thursday night.
Brian Brohm brought Louisville from 17 points down in the second half, with the Cardinals tying it on Art Carmody’s 37-yard field goal with 3:05 left.
The win allowed West Virginia (8-1, 3-1 Big East) to remain on Connecticut’s heels for a berth in the Bowl Championship Series with three games left, including a key matchup next week at Cincinnati.
Louisville (5-5, 2-3 Big East) was eliminated from the conference title chase. The Cardinals need a win either at South Florida or at home against Rutgers to become bowl eligible for a 10th straight season.
White ran 24 times for 147 yards and threw for 181 more in his third straight stellar game against the Cardinals.
Brohm completed 27 of 46 passes for 345 yards, but was intercepted twice and sacked four times.
Louisville held the nation’s third-best rushing attack to 216 yards and leading rusher Steve Slaton had just 60 yards on 17 carries, his second-lowest total of the season.
White and Slaton fumbled the ball away a combined three times in the second half to help Louisville get back into the game and the Mountaineers, the least penalized team in the Big East, were flagged 11 times for 116 yards.
White fumbled on West Virginia’s first possession of the third quarter, but Brohm was hit going back to pass by John Holmes. Eric Wicks scooped up the ball and ran 44 yards for a TD to give the Mountaineers a 31-14 lead.
After Slaton’s fumble gave Louisville the ball at the West Virginia 46 late in the third quarter, a pass-interference call on Ryan Mundy gave Louisville the ball at the 2. Brock Bolen scored from there to pull Louisville to 31-21.
A pass-interference call on Ellis Lankster gave Louisville a first down at the West Virginia 12, and Brohm found Mario Urrutia in the end zone on the next play over an outstretched Lankster to bring the Cardinals to 31-28 with 10:32 left.
They were the first points given up by West Virginia’s defense in the fourth quarter in five games.
Penalties against West Virginia on consecutive plays put Louisville in field goal range for Carmody’s tying kick.
West Virginia is 51-1 since 2000 when scoring at least 30 points.
Darius Reynaud caught first-quarter TD passes of 7 and 9 yards, the latter after a fumble recovery, and Reynaud’s 23-yard catch set up a short TD run by Slaton midway through the second for a 21-7 lead.
West Virginia mustered little offense on its final two drives of the half, enabling Louisville to move closer. Brohm hit George Stripling with a 44-yard screen pass to set up Brohm’s 1-yard TD sneak late in the half.
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