MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bob Huggins' young West Virginia basketball team took a small step earlier this week with its exciting 104-96 triple-overtime victory over TCU on Tuesday night.
 
Now, we'll see if the Mountaineers can take another step in Norman, Oklahoma, on Saturday afternoon.
 
West Virginia (11-17) snapped its five-game losing streak by outlasting a Horned Frog team that beat it by 31 points earlier this year in Fort Worth.
 
Freshman point guard Jordan McCabe scored 25 points and handed out 11 assists, while freshman forward Derek Culver's 22-point, 21-rebound performance was the first time in 42 years a Mountaineer player has gone 20 and 20 in a game.
 
On Saturday, the Mountaineers will be seeking their first road victory of the season.
 
"I told them after the game, 'Guys we've got to get on a run here and that means your job tomorrow is take care of yourself. You all need to go into the training room,'" Huggins said. "So I called in to (athletic trainer Randy Meador) and he said everybody was in early so I think they're starting to understand. And you've got a bunch of guys that really do love to play. They love basketball."
 
Oklahoma (17-11) has put itself in a position where it needs to win games to remain on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
 
ESPN.com bracketologist Joe Lunardi currently has the Sooners in as a 10-seed, but Oklahoma has dropped six of its last eight games including a pair recently at home to Iowa State and Texas Tech.
 
Oklahoma lost by 17 last Saturday at Iowa State and also dropped a 79-71 decision at West Virginia at the beginning of last month – one of three Big 12 victories for the Mountaineers this season.
 
In that game, freshman guard Brandon Knapper came off the bench to score a season-high 25 points on seven-of-10 shooting. He also made some clutch free throws down the stretch to hold off OU's late run.
 
"Knap made shots," Huggins said. "He went for 25 and made shots and made free throws down the stretch for us. We kind of had control of the game and they made a run at us and we made shots when we had to make shots."
 
The veteran coach indicated Thursday that he's not sure if Knapper will be available for Saturday's game after suffering a neck sprain before last Saturday's loss at Baylor. He has not played in West Virginia's last two games.
"He warmed up the other night and shot the ball, but whether he can run up and down and run into screens and things, I doubt it," Huggins said.
 
With forward Sagaba Konate and guard Beetle Bolden still recovering from injuries, that means the Mountaineers will likely have just nine scholarship players available once again on Saturday.
 
In addition to McCabe and Culver, WVU got a big boost on Tuesday night from junior guard Jermaine Haley, whose 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists were all season highs.
 
Junior forward Lamont West contributed 17 points and junior guard Chase Harler came off the bench to score 13 in 51 minutes of action.
 
Culver leads all available WVU players in scoring (11.9 ppg.) and rebounding (9.7 rpg.) while West is the only available Mountaineer averaging double figures at 10.6 points per game.
 
McCabe, averaging 3.9 points per game, has scored 39 points and handed out 15 assists in his last two games.
 
Senior guard Christian James is Oklahoma's top scorer with an average of 15.4 points per game. He had just 10 on one-of-10 shooting the first time OU played West Virginia in Morgantown, though.
 
Forwards Brady Maney (11.6 ppg.) and Kristian Doolittle (10.3) are also averaging double digits for the Sooners.
 
Last year, West Virginia pulled out a 75-73 victory in Norman, one of two victories it has achieved at the Lloyd Noble Center since joining the Big 12 seven years ago. 
 
WVU has won four straight and five out of its last six against the Sooners.
 
Saturday's game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College's radio coverage will begin at 1 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Oklahoma sits in eighth place in the Big 12 standings with a 5-10 record while West Virginia and Oklahoma State are two games behind the Sooners at 3-12.
 
Oklahoma State, which presently owns the tie breaker against West Virginia, plays host to 15^th-ranked Kansas at noon on Saturday.
 
In other league action, co-leader Texas Tech is at TCU while co-leader Kansas State plays host to Baylor.
 
The Bears are presently tied with Kansas in third place after winning four of their last five games to put them at 19-9 overall, 10-5 in Big 12 play.
 
Meanwhile, Iowa State is at Texas in a battle of two middle-of-the-pack Big 12 teams.