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Mountaineers Fall to Oklahoma
February 20, 2016 06:53 PM | Men's Basketball
Photo Gallery Final Stats
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – National player of the year favorite Buddy Hield was as good as advertised today, the senior guard scoring 29 points to lead third-ranked Oklahoma to a 76-62 victory over 10th-ranked West Virginia this afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
In fact, Hield was so good his 29 points were six more than West Virginia’s entire starting lineup, which finished with just 23.
Oklahoma did a good job of handling West Virginia’s pressure, turning the ball over only nine times, and the Sooners were also able to grab 18 offensive rebounds, many of those leading to wide open threes from Hield, who made five, Isaiah Cousins, who made two and Dinjiyl Walker, who hit a big one in the second half.
Oklahoma (21-5, 9-5) had a 48-37 advantage on the glass, which kept the Sooners close until their shooters found their stroke.
OU missed its first nine three-point field goal tries before Cousins finally got one to go down with 8:10 left in the first half. After that, the Sooners hit seven of 18 from behind the arc and led for a vast majority of today’s game.
“They just absolutely dominated us on the glass,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We just did not rebound the ball.”
West Virginia’s best stretch came right at the start of the second half when the Mountaineers used an 11-3 flurry right out of the gate to take a 37-31 lead.
Devin Williams got one to go down close to the basket, Nathan Adrian made a steal on the inbound pass, scored a layup and a technical foul was called on Jordan Woodard during the play, leading to a pair of Tarik Phillip free throws. Williams hit another shot close to the basket and Jevon Carter made a three – his only made field goal in 10 attempts this afternoon.
But Adrian was called for his third foul, the Mountaineers subbed in four new players and that led to an 8-0 Oklahoma run and the lead once again.
The game was tied at 52 with 7:49 remaining when Jaysean Paige converted a driving layup, but the Sooners used a 24-10 run the rest of the way to send an overflow crowd of 15,289 – the seventh-largest in Coliseum history – home disappointed.
Phillip led West Virginia with 17 points coming off the bench, while Paige added 13 and Williams scored 10. Jonathan Holton contributed nine points while grabbing a team-best 11 rebounds.
“We didn’t make shots,” said Huggins. “You look at the guys you think you might want to throw the ball to and Devin is 4 for 11, Jevon is 1 for 10, Jaysean is 4 for 16 and Tarik is 5 for 10 and we’re looking for him to carry us. We didn’t make shots and we were still in the game.”
Guard Daxter Miles Jr. missed his second straight game after suffering a hamstring injury last Saturday against TCU and Paige was less than 100 percent playing on a tender ankle he sprained on Tuesday night in the loss at Texas.
“You don’t have your full compliment of guys so you can’t do what you set out to do to start the year,” said Huggins. “At the beginning of the year, I said to them, ‘I can play all of you, but you’ve all got to play. You can’t take plays off, you’ve got to play hard and I’ll play all of you.’ Then this guy goes down, that guy goes down and all of a sudden you look at what was a strength has now become a weakness, particularly the way we have to play.
“We’re just not going to win many games playing half court.”
The two losses this week to Texas and Oklahoma have severely damaged West Virginia’s Big 12 titles hopes. The Mountaineers (20-7, 9-5) are now in a three-way tie with Oklahoma and Baylor in second place behind 10-3 Kansas, but the Sooners hold the tiebreaker by virtue of its season sweep of West Virginia.
Baylor beat Texas by double digits earlier today in Austin and the Mountaineers have the Bears coming up in Waco in 13 days to complete the regular season.
In between, WVU has games regular season conference games against Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech - the Iowa State and Texas Tech games taking place in Morgantown.
WVU has a quick turnaround with the Cyclones coming to town for an ESPN game on Monday night at 9 p.m.
Iowa State plays at home against TCU later tonight.
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
Sunday, April 05
Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
