Box Score Tanner Groves scored 17 points and Jordan Goldwire added 16 to lead Oklahoma to a 72-59 victory over West Virginia at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, Tuesday night.
Oklahoma shot 53% to West Virginia's 38% and at one point in the first half the Mountaineers missed 17 straight shots before WVU closed the half on a 10-0 run to trail by just four, 28-24, at halftime.
Pauly Paulicap scored the opening basket of the second half but West Virginia could never get closer than three points for the remainder of the game.
"I'm embarrassed because I wear this WVU insignia with pride," West Virginia coach
Bob Huggins said afterward. "I'm embarrassed for the people who follow us and for the people who have been terrific and come to the games and try and cheer these guys on."
For a good portion of the second half, Oklahoma chose to drive the ball to the basket or pass it to an open cutter going to the rim. Out of this, the Sooners either scored layups or got to the free throw line with OU connecting on 10 of its 13 charity stripe attempts.
After sufficiently softening up West Virginia's defense, Tanner Groves stepped back to hit open 3s at 3:11 and then at 1:54 to put away the game. Oklahoma finished the contest making 9 of 11 and all five of its remaining field goal attempts.
Jacob Groves, as he did in Morgantown, also hurt the Mountaineers by tallying 9 points with all three of his field goals coming from behind the 3-point arc.
Oklahoma made 8-of-20 from 3-point distance and finished 27 of 51 overall from the floor.
"When you say 'stay attached' that means you have to stay attached," Huggins said. "That means you don't trot in there and then let them throw it back out and a guy has a wide-open 3. You stay attached.
"We told them they were going to drive it and cut. When they took the lead it happened because we didn't stay attached and we didn't guard guys that were diving after they drove the ball," Huggins added.
Malik Curry continues to be West Virginia's No. 1 scoring option by generating a team-best 17 points off the bench. He had a season-high 27 last Saturday against Texas and 19 in last week's loss at Iowa State.
The senior guard is averaging 21 points over his last three games and has boosted his season average to 9.2 points per game.
Senior forward
Pauly Paulicap contributed 10 points off the bench as West Virginia's reserves accounted for 32 of the Mountaineers' 59 points tonight. Last Saturday, the bench was responsible for 50 of WVU's 81 points in the Texas loss.
"We're trying to stay positive but it's kind of hard to with the way things are going, so I'll just leave it at that," Paulicap said afterward.
"We've got guys who don't listen and don't care," Huggins added. "It's frustrating when what happens to them is more important than what happens to the team, so you will probably see a guy or two who will not suit up for us this weekend when we play again. I've told them and told them and told them and if I don't do something, as many times as I've told them, then I lose all credibility. And I need credibility to build this team for next year."
The Sooners swept the season series against West Virginia and have secured six consecutive wins and seven of the last eight against the Mountaineers going back to 2019.
Tonight's defeat was West Virginia's seventh straight, matching the seven it lost from Jan. 15 until knocking off Iowa State on Feb. 8.
WVU (14-16, 3-14) will wrap up the regular season on Saturday at the WVU Coliseum against TCU.
Oklahoma, now 16-14, 6-11, has one game left at Kansas State on Saturday.
West Virginia will most likely face Oklahoma, Kansas State or possibly Iowa State in next week's Big 12 Tournament play-in game on Wednesday night at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
