MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two teams hungry to end losing streaks will meet Wednesday night when West Virginia faces Oklahoma at the WVU Coliseum.
 
West Virginia (13-5, 2-4) dropped its third straight game at 18^th-ranked Texas Tech, four nights after falling to defending national champion Baylor last Tuesday night. The losing streak began at No. 7 Kansas back on Jan. 15.
 
Oklahoma (12-7, 2-5) has dropped four straight since is 79-66 win over then-No. 11 Iowa State on Jan. 8. In succession, the Sooners lost 66-52 at No. 21 Texas and then dropped games to TCU (59-58 in overtime), Kansas (67-64) and Baylor (65-51).
 
First-year coach Porter Moser had OU off to an impressive 10-2 start before hitting non-conference play with victories over Florida (74-67) and Arkansas (88-66).
 
Moser has blended Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire and Eastern Washington transfer Tanner Groves to a starting lineup that includes Lon Kruger holdovers Umoja Gibson, Elijah Harkless and Jalen Hill.
 
"They run great offense," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "He's done a great job putting a team together. They had a chance to beat Kansas and a chance to beat Baylor. Actually, they led both of them late in the game.
 
"He runs a variation of a lot of good stuff a lot of good coaches run today," Huggins added. "I'm sure his background with (the late) Rick Majerus probably has helped him. They are great at back-cutting you when you start watching the ball. They do a great job of opening up driving lanes, so they can drive it to the rim. I really like their team."
 
Gibson, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, has had really good games against the Mountaineers in the past. He scored 19 in last year's 91-90 victory at the Coliseum and lit up the scoreboard for 29 in a 75-71 victory in Norman.
 
In those two victories the Waco, Texas, resident made 13 of 21 from 3-point range.
 
Harkless contributed 12 points during the win in Morgantown while Hill, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, saw action in both victories.
 
Groves, a 6-foot-10 senior forward from Spokane, Washington, is OU's leading scorer averaging 12.7 points per game. Gibson is scoring at a 12.4-points-per-game clip while Harkless shows averages of 9.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
 
Goldwire is contributing 9.3 points per game while Hill is averaging 9.4 points and a team-best 6.3 rebounds per game.
 
"They have a couple of guys who rebound it well out of their area, kind of like a Jonathon (Holton) once did for us," Huggins said.
Oklahoma's other Big 12 victory this year came against Kansas State, 71-69, on Jan. 1. The Sooners are 0-3 in true road games this year.
 
West Virginia guard Taz Sherman scored 21 in last Saturday's 78-65 loss at Texas Tech in United Supermarkets Arena and ranks second to Kansas' Ochai Agbaji among Big 12 scorers by averaging 18.9 points per game.
 
Guard Sean McNeil, who was held to just 7 points at Texas Tech, is averaging 14 points per game while senior guard Malik Curry has scored 53 points in his last three games, including a season-high 23 at Kansas.
 
Huggins used a starting lineup consisting of Sherman, McNeil, guard Kedrian Johnson and forwards Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell against Texas Tech, but he indicated earlier today that he might look to change things up based on how Tuesday's practice and Wednesday's pregame walk-through goes.
 
"I've never been very satisfied with losing, and we lost," Huggins said. "We had some blown opportunities but a lot of things happen - a bad pass and a missed shot. We missed 11 shots inside of 2 feet. How are you going to win? You're not going to win when that happens."
 
West Virginia has dropped four straight to the Sooners and last defeated Oklahoma 72-71 in the 2019 Big 12 Tournament in the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Oklahoma has won five of the last six meetings.
 
Wednesday night's game will tip off at 8 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Mark Neely and Chris Spatola). Mountaineer Sports Network coverage begins at 7 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.