Box Score You had a feeling the way West Virginia was playing tonight that if the Mountaineers could just keep it close, veteran coach Bob Huggins would somehow figure out a way to win it at the end.
 
And that's exactly what happened when seventh-ranked West Virginia withstood some torrid first-half shooting from Oklahoma State to outlast the Cowboys, 85-79, before 8,257 at Gallagher Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
 
"This is us, this is what we do," Huggins said afterward. "We don't shoot it as well as other people. We don't pass it well a lot of times, but we grind and we rebound and we come up with loose balls."
 
The game turned WVU's way midway through the second half when Huggins made an offensive adjustment by putting freshman forward Teddy Allen in the soft spot of the Cowboy defense near the basket and he responded with a team-high 15 points, 13 of those coming in the second half when the Mountaineers had fallen behind 58-51 with 13:33 remaining.
 
Here, Allen went to work in the lane where his teammates had struggled mightily for most of the night to score close to the basket. He converted a traditional three-point play and that loosened up the defense enough to allow teammate Sagaba Konate more room to operate along the baseline. Konate added three straight baskets during a three-minute stretch to tie the game at 60, and Daxter Miles Jr. added two free throws to give WVU a 62-60 lead.
 
Lindy Waters momentarily gave the lead back to Oklahoma State with a 3, but Allen responded with another close one to key a 6-0 spurt to push the Mountaineer lead out to four, 67-63.
 
The margin swelled to seven when Jevon Carter banged a wide-open 3, one of just two field goals he made for the night. Maciej Bender grabbed a big offensive rebound ahead of Carter's triple when he secured Wesley Harris' wild 3-point try from the corner and the ball eventually got to Carter wide open on the wing.
 
Two Carter free throws with 3:11 remaining gave the Mountaineers a nine-point advantage, their biggest of the game. Oklahoma State forward Mitch Solomon, who gave WVU fits all night, was called for his fifth foul and exited the game.
 
But the Cowboys (10-3, 0-1) fought back, OSU eventually getting a three-point play from Brandon Averette to reduce West Virginia's lead to two, 81-79, with 34 seconds remaining.
 
Sophomore guard James Bolden was fouled at the other end by Waters with 23 seconds left and made both free throws.
 
A missed 3 by Jeffery Carroll was rebounded by Konate, who was immediately fouled by Waters. Konate made his two free throws with 12 seconds left and then Harris stole the inbound pass, which allowed the Mountaineers to run out the clock.
 
"We didn't really execute very well down the stretch, but we did make free throws and we rebounded the ball," Huggins said.

"You have to make winning plays. Credit to West Virginia - they made the plays to win the game, for the most part, throughout the second half, and we didn't," Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said. "That's on me to get corrected and get us ready for the next one. We'll be better next time."
 
West Virginia (12-1, 1-0) was 27 of 32 from the line (19 of 21 in the second half) and out-rebounded the Cowboys, 22-12, after halftime to finish with a plus-three margin on the glass. The Mountaineers also forced 21 Cowboy turnovers, although they committed 18 themselves.
 
Carter turned it over eight times and hit just 2 of 10 from the floor, but he did make all six free throws to finish with 12. He was also credited with seven assists and five steals.
 
"He finds ways," Huggins said of his senior guard.
 
WVU got across-the-board scoring tonight from its supporting cast - 13 from Konate, 12 from Miles Jr, 11 from Lamont West and 10 off the bench from Bolden.
 
"I'm sitting here looking at these offensive stats thinking we were horrible offensively and we score more than 80 again," Huggins said. "Somehow we find ways to score."
 
Oklahoma State led 46-39 at halftime.
 
Carroll finished with 17, matching Tavarius Shine for top scoring honors for Oklahoma State.
 
The Cowboys finished the game hitting 24 of their 47 field goal attempts for 51.1 percent. West Virginia heated up a little bit in the second half to finish 43.9 percent by hitting 25 of its 57 attempts.

"We've got 17 more games like this! Can't we get in another league - one of those leagues where we'd be the kingpin and just smack everybody," Huggins joked. 
 
West Virginia remains on the road to play at Kansas State on Monday night. That game will be televised nationally on ESPNU and will tip off at 5 p.m.