Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kristian Doolittle's 19 points paced four Oklahoma double-figure scorers in the Sooners' 73-62 victory over West Virginia here at a sold-out WVU Coliseum this afternoon.
 
An announced crowd of 14,044 came out today to see WVU legend Rod Thorn get his jersey number 44 officially retired at halftime and to help the struggling Mountaineers find their shooting touch.
 
They saw the unveiling of Thorn's jersey, but unfortunately, they didn't see enough of West Virginia's shots fall through the cylinder.
 
West Virginia's shooting difficulties, dating back to its 69-59 loss at Oklahoma on Feb. 8, continued this afternoon. WVU made only 4-of-25 from 3-point distance for 16 percent and also missed nine of its 19 free throw attempts against the Sooners.
 
In its last seven games, six of those losses, West Virginia is shooting just 22.7 percent from 3-point range (27 of 119) and at the free throw line where nobody is guarding them, the Mountaineers have missed 50 free throws during this current stretch of games.
 
Consequently, a team that was once considered a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament with an 18-4 overall record has now fallen into a tie with TCU for sixth place in the Big 12 standings.
 
TCU produced the upset of the day by knocking off Baylor in Fort Worth, and surging Texas also earned a big victory earlier this afternoon by winning at No. 22 Texas Tech.
 
Kansas held off Kansas State to take sole possession of first place while Oklahoma State picked up conference win No. 5 against Iowa State.
 
Two through five in the conference standings are now Baylor (14-2), Texas Tech (9-7), Oklahoma and Texas (8-8).
 
The Sooners (18-11) used a 23-8 run over the first eight minutes of the second half to build a 48-31 lead. It grew to as many as 21 with 7:08 left on Doolittle's free throw as many of the fans began heading for the exits.
 
"They're very good step-in shooters and we let them step in and make two in a row and all of a sudden it goes from four to 10," a disappointed West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said afterward.
 
West Virginia took out both bigs and went to a four-guard rotation with Jermaine Haley, Chase Harler, Miles McBride and Taz Sherman to try and speed up Oklahoma and make the game frenetic.
 
The Mountaineers got the deficit down to eight and could have trimmed it to six with 2:30 left, but McBride couldn't get his contested layup attempt to go down and Haley's follow up try was also unsuccessful.
 
In the meantime, Oklahoma opted to spread the floor and run clock to preserve its lead.
 
"At the end we tried to make the game as fast and as ugly as we could and we got it to eight, but a lot of our people didn't have very good games," Huggins said.
 
Doolittle, who went for 27 points and 12 rebounds earlier this month against West Virginia in Norman, had another outstanding game by hitting 7-of-13 from the floor and grabbing a team-high-tying seven boards.
 
"You have a guy like Doolittle who can score inside and out so you put a smaller guy on him and he puts them on his back and scores," Huggins said. "Then you put a bigger guy on him and he stands off of them. The whole deal was the bigs were supposed to crowd him and not let him get a good shot  there and then not foul him. It didn't work."
 
Sweet-shooting forward Brady Manek contributed 15, guard Austin Reaves scored 13 and guard Jamal Bieniemy added 12.
 
The Sooners shot 49.1 percent overall, hit 8-of-21 from 3 and converted 13 of their 16 free throw attempts. OU also held its own on the glass  by grabbing 39 rebounds compared to West Virginia's 43.
 
McBride was the only Mountaineer player to reach double figures with 13 points coming off the bench.
 
Freshman Oscar Tshiebwe contributed nine points and 10 rebounds. West Virginia once again tried to establish an inside presence with Tshiebwe and sophomore Derek Culver, but those two only managed to deliver just 14 points on a combined 6-of-19 shooting.
 
"We base our game on going inside because we haven't made a shot (from the outside)," Huggins explained. "When you don't make any shots you'd be awful dumb to keep shooting them and missing them and not trying to at least throw the ball inside to those guys."
 
Oklahoma originally was awarded a 27-23 halftime lead when a clock malfunction allowed the Sooners to score a tip-in basket right before the end of the first half. But when officials returned to the floor with a stopwatch to time the sequence on the replay monitor, it was determined that Jalen's Hill's basket came after the horn had sounded.
 
The Sooners, just 2-8 on the road before today's game, swept the season series from West Virginia for the second time since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 in 2012, and have won six of the last eight dating back to 2017.
 
"A really good win," Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. "Any time you can win anywhere in this conference is great. To win on the road is a bonus, so I know how special that is."
 
West Virginia (19-10) will look to rebound on Tuesday night at Iowa State. The Mountaineers will conclude the regular season on Saturday at the Coliseum against Baylor.
 
"I think they understand where we are," Huggins said. "We need to go to Iowa State and win. We need to come back here and beat Baylor and then we need to go to the conference tournament and win some games."