Southern West Virginia News

Sooners Edge Mountaineers Saturday Afternoon in Norman

Despite failing to make a field goal over the remaining 6:14 of the game, Oklahoma managed to defeat West Virginia 77-76 Saturday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
 
It was a similar script for WVU, which dropped to 0-5 in Big 12 play and lost for the 12th straight time on the road in Big 12 play – poor free throw shooting.
 
The Sooners (11-6, 2-3) made enough of theirs, 18 of 25, while the Mountaineers missed half of their 16 attempts.
 
"I thought we did a better job of taking care of the ball," a disappointed West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said afterward. "Our guys competed."
 
West Virginia made six more field goals than Oklahoma, out-shot the Sooners 56.4% to 55.4%, and had a 14-to-five turnover advantage, but couldn't get the free throws to go down that it needed late in the game.
 
The big misses came in the final four minutes after West Virginia battled back from a nine-point deficit. Trailing 70-69 with 1:43 left, a Tre Mitchell miss kept WVU from taking its first lead of the game.
 
Then, with the score tied at 70, Joe Toussaint stepped up to the line with 1:05 remaining and was unable to get either free throw to go down. Four consecutive Jalen Hill makes at the other end got Oklahoma's lead to four, yet West Virginia had an opportunity to whittle the deficit to two when Erik Stevenson was fouled by Otega Oweh with 11 seconds left.
 
He made the first and missed the second, leaving the margin at three. 
 
Over the final four minutes of the game, West Virginia was 3 for 8 at the free throw line while Oklahoma was 9 for 12.
 
West Virginia (10-7, 0-5) has had second-half leads in three of its five conference losses this year and today's game was tied with a minute remaining, but missed free throws have been fatal. WVU came into today's game shooting 70.1% overall at the line, but only 62.2% in Big 12 play.
 
"I don't know what to say and I don't know what to do," Huggins said. "I do make them make a hundred before they leave the gym. We started doing the 90% drill (miss and run) but it's hard to do that this time of year. Running them extra when you play so many games in a short period of time doesn't help you either."
 
After Hill's two free throws with 31 seconds left gave Oklahoma a 72-70 lead, West Virginia called timeout with 27 seconds left and could have run the shot clock down and attempted a shot to either tie it or win it.
 
With 18 seconds left, Stevenson came off a screen to try a difficult 3 from the wing that barely grazed the rim and was rebounded by Hill. Huggins wanted to get Stevenson free to take the shot but that was not the look he desired.
 
"I asked Erik which way he wanted to turn coming out of the Picket Fence and he said he wanted to turn (to his right) but that was probably not what we should have done," Huggins said. "That was a forced shot, and we didn't need a forced shot. The deal was if you don't have a good shot, penetrate and pitch it, which is actually how we got Seth (Wilson) a shot at the end after we were already down four."
 
Oklahoma had a 29 to 19 advantage on the glass and managed to benefit from that in the second half by getting multiple second and third possessions when West Virginia was attempting a comeback.
 
Sherfield, the Big 12's fifth leading scorer, got a game-high 22 but only made 5 of his 15 field goal attempts. Hill contributed 14 points while Milos Uzan scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high nine boards.
 
Mitchell led West Virginia with 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting. Toussaint contributed 14 points off the bench, 10 of those coming in the first half. Kedrian Johnson scored 13 and Emmitt Matthews Jr. finished with 11.
 
Oklahoma had 14 assists on its 25 made field goals while the Mountaineers outscored the Sooners 44 to 28 in the paint.
 
Today's loss was West Virginia's ninth in 11 games at the Noble Center. WVU's lone victories in Norman occurred during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
 
"We're getting closer. We're not by any stretch the worst team in the league," Huggins noted. "We've had some things happen. At the end of the Baylor game, we should have had the ball at the end, and we didn't. In this game, we should have had the ball at the end, but we didn't because of missed free throws. You feel a whole lot better at the end of games with the ball in your hands than not having the ball in your hands."
 
This was Oklahoma's third one-possession game in Big 12 play so far this year, the Sooners losing 70-69 to Texas and 63-60 to Iowa State. OU also dropped a 79-75 decision to Kansas earlier in the week.
 
Huggins said on his postgame radio show that the team will have to return to the hotel and wait on repairs to be made to its charter aircraft so an early return to Morgantown is not likely. 
 
The Mountaineers will face TCU at the WVU Coliseum on Wednesday, Jan. 18. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
  

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