Box Score It was either terrific West Virginia defense or awful Oklahoma State shooting, but either way the Mountaineers were the beneficiaries as they downed the misfiring Cowboys 55-41 at Gallagher Iba Arena on Monday night in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Both teams, coming off Saturday road losses – Oklahoma State by 35 at Texas Tech and West Virginia by seven at third-ranked Kansas – wanted to avoid an 0-2 start to the Big 12 season.
No. 17 West Virginia did so by shooting a little bit better than Oklahoma State, particularly from 3 where the Cowboys misfired on 19 of the 20 treys they tried. It took Oklahoma State 16 misses before Lindy Waters got the 17
th triple to go down late in the second half, and then the Cowboys began to miss more before time ran out.
OSU was a little more accurate inside the arc, converting 13-of-28, but when combined with 19 turnovers, a minus-four deficit on the glass and clanking eight of its 20 free-throw attempts, that's too much to overcome.
West Virginia's winning formula turned out to be giving maximum effort on the defensive end of the floor, grabbing a good number of its missed shots and going deep into its bench.
A total of 12 Mountaineer players saw action tonight and nine of them got into the scoring column.
"We persevered," West Virginia coach
Bob Huggins said during his postgame radio show.
Freshman guard
Miles McBride came off the bench to score 10,
Brandon Knapper contributed 8 and
Chase Harler produced another 20 minutes of solid all-around play for the Mountaineers, now 12-2, 1-1.
Freshman forward
Oscar Tshiebwe, named Big 12 newcomer of the week earlier today, led West Virginia with 12 points while just missing another double-double with eight rebounds.
Derek Culver also missed another double-double the other way, the sophomore grabbing a game-high 12 boards to go with his 9 points. Culver could have had the double-double if he converted just 40 percent of the 10 free throws he attempted tonight.
Overall, it was another tough night at the charity stripe for West Virginia as it converted just 11-of-20. WVU wasn't much better from the floor, hitting 19-of-49 for 38.8 percent, and it also turned the ball over 20 times, a number of those coming in the game's waning minute after it had built an 18-point lead. Two days ago West Virginia had 16 miscues in the Kansas loss.
"That was a bad basketball game," Huggins said. "They turn it over 19 times, we turn it over 20 for 39 turnovers ... couldn't make a shot either team …"
Tonight's win snapped a three-game losing streak against Oklahoma State and evens the all-time series at 8-8.
Oklahoma State's 41 points were a season-low for the Cowboys and represents the second time this season West Virginia has held an opponent below 50 points. Back in November, the Mountaineers limited Boston University to just 44 points in their 25-point win at the Coliseum.
"Both teams had open looks and missed and you can't miss open looks," Huggins said. "I tell our guys all the time, the NCAA Tournament is about making open shots because you don't get very many. And in this league is so hard game in and game out that when you get open shots you've got to make them."
Huggins thought his young basketball team had a little bit of a hangover following the tough loss Saturday in Lawrence.
"We were kind of out of it a little bit, I think," he said. "I think both teams playing Saturday and then turning around and playing Monday, you're taking about 18- to 21-year-old kids and not grown men who are doing this for a living."
West Virginia finally returns to the Coliseum this Saturday against Texas Tech after spending the last three weeks on the road where the Mountaineers won three of four.
The Red Raiders are ranked 22
nd this week and will face No. 4 Baylor tomorrow night in Lubbock.
