Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Cade Cunningham and Avery Anderson scored 17 points each to lead 12^th-ranked Oklahoma State to a 72-69 victory over 10^th-ranked West Virginia in a Big 12 quarterfinal round game at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
 
Cunningham, who sat out last Saturday's OSU 85-80 win in Morgantown, shot just six of 15 from the floor, but hit a pair of 3s and grabbed eight rebounds for the 19-7 Cowboys. Anderson, as he did last week against WVU with a career-high 31, was unstoppable in the second half when he tallied 15 of his 17 points.
 
Anderson's big basket came with 53 seconds to go when he blew past Sean McNeil for a driving layup to give Oklahoma State a 70-69 lead.
 
At the other end, West Virginia's Deuce McBride couldn't get his shot jumper to fall. Emmitt Matthews Jr. took the ball from Cunningham but also missed a close one, requiring McNeil to foul Isaac Likekele, who made both free throws.
 
West Virginia called timeout with 16 seconds remaining seeking a 3 to tie it. Oklahoma State, which had fouls to give, opted not to foul. Taz Sherman's 3-point try from the wing was deflected by Likekele. The ball was rebounded along the baseline by Derek Culver, who kicked it back out to McNeil.
 
He got off a successful 3 but it came after time had expired.
 
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said Sherman was the No. 1 option on the play coming after the timeout because he was hot, but there was also an option to skip the ball to the other side of the floor to McNeil if he was covered.
 
"I thought they had really over shifted that way and Sean was open (on the other wing) a couple of times before, but (Taz) opted to shoot it and rightfully so because he had made a few," Huggins said. "But I thought we could overload them that way and throw it back against the grain and we did, but not the way I wanted it to happen."

"Games never come down to one play," McBride said. "They come down to multiple plays and multiple plays decided this game."
 
West Virginia scored the last seven points of the first half, including a pair of rapid-fire baskets from McBride, to take a six-point lead into the locker room at the break.
 
McBride's second basket was a driving dunk over Cunningham.
 
A McBride jumper to begin the second half gave West Virginia an eight-point lead, its biggest of the game, but things turned at the 10-minute mark when the Cowboys went on a 9-0 run. 
 
Actually, from 12:41 until 5:43, Oklahoma State outscored West Virginia 23-5 to take a 10-point lead.
 
But Sherman answered with back-to-back 3s and then added a layup to reduce the Cowboys' advantage to one, 65-64. Another Sherman 3 with 54 seconds remaining gave West Virginia a 69-68 lead.
 
The Mountaineers (18-9) were no match for the Cowboys on the glass, in part because Culver was suffering from a cold and backup forward Gabe Osabuohien once again being saddled in foul trouble. 
 
Osabuohien's afternoon ended with 3:17 to go and WVU trailing 67-64.
 
Oklahoma State grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and had a 13-board advantage over the Mountaineers. Kalib Boone grabbed four offensive rebounds and finished with a game-high 10 overall.
 
West Virginia had 15 turnovers to Oklahoma State's 20, but the Cowboys made up for their lost possessions with their solid glass work.
 
"We don't rebound the ball well enough and we can't compound that by turning the ball over," Huggins said.
 
Likekele, who also sat out last Saturday's game at West Virginia, contributed 10 points on four-of-six shooting in 26 minutes of work coming off the bench.
 
Guard Bryce Williams also contributed 10.
 
McBride and Sherman led all scorers with 19 points each, but 16 of McBride's came in the first half. He was just one-of-five from the floor after intermission.

"We were forced into taking some tougher shots in the second half," McBride said. "They got out of the zone and started applying more pressure and rebounding was the story of the game. They got rebounds and finished on their end and we didn't so that's something we're going to have to clean up."
 
Sherman picked up the slack scoring 14 in the second half and finished the game seven-of-16 from the floor. Culver contributed 11 points and nine rebounds in a gutty performance. Despite playing 30 minutes, he could be seen sitting on the bench with a towel over his head and West Virginia had to use timeouts to try and give him some additional rest.
 
"He took a full (IV) bag at halftime," Huggins said. "I thought he really, really labored in the first half and he was a little bit better in the second half. He just couldn't get his breath. He showed he was a man just running up and down the way he did."
 
McNeil scored 10 for WVU.
 
Another area where Oklahoma State had an advantage was at the free throw line where the Cowboys shot 20 and made 12, to West Virginia's six-of-nine.
 
The Cowboys shot 44.3% from the floor to West Virginia's 42.4%.
 
Oklahoma State moves on to likely face No. 1-seeded Baylor in tomorrow's semifinals. The Bears will take on ninth-seeded Kansas State in today's second game.
 
West Virginia, coming off a brutal four-game-in-seven-day stretch, will have some additional time to rest and heal up before next week's NCAA Tournament.
 
"We've just got to get healed up and get well," said Huggins, still seeking his 900^th career victory. "We have some time now. The plan is to go home tonight and that's what we'll do."
 
The Mountaineers will learn their seeding and opponent when the field of 68 is announced this Sunday.