Oklahoma basketball: Numbers that matter from humbling at West Virginia
By Chip Rouse
West Virginia turned 17 Oklahoma basketball turnovers into 21 points, scored 10 points off of transition and got 30 points off the bench on Saturday night in a Big 12 battle of top-10 teams.
That’s all you really have to know to understand how Oklahoma fell 89-76 to the No. 6-ranked Mountaineers on the road at West Virginia.
Sooner super freshman Trae Young managed to reach his 29-point scoring average, but it wasn’t particularly pretty or easy. The nation’s scoring leader took three times as many shots as any other teammate. That’s not necessarily uncommon or unwarranted, but the fact that just 36 percent of his shots went in the basket was uncharacteristic and largely the result of having a couple of West Virginia defenders around him all night long.
Young earned 10 of his game-high 29 points at the free-throw line. He shot just 8 of 22 from the floor and was 3 for 12 from long range. The former five-star recruit from Norman North High School is the nation leader in assists, but on Saturday night he committed more turnovers (8) than dimes (5), five fewer than the 10.6 he had averaged through OU’s first 13 games.
Young has shown that he is good for 25-30 points every game, but the problem is, for the Sooners to be able to win games in a conference as deep and competitive as what exists in the Big 12 this season, he’s going to have to get complementary scoring from his teammates.
On Saturday at West Virginia, freshman Brady Manek, who had scored at least 20 points in three of his previous five games, was held scoreless. In the Sooners’ 109-89 blowout Bedlam win over Oklahoma State, the 6-foot, 9-inch Sooner first-year player scored a game-high 28. Christian James, OU’s second leading scorer was held to seven points, five points below his season average.
The Sooners did not play their best game by far at West Virginia, but the Mountaineers full-court, 40-minute pressure on the ball had much to do with that. Plus winning on the road in the Big 12 is extremely difficult.
Here are some other numbers that matter from Oklahoma’s second loss of the season to go with a dozen wins:
2 – Field goals made by Trae Young over the final 14 minutes of the game.
4 – Oklahoma largest lead in the game. It came in the opening two minutes of the game.
8 – In addition to eight steals, West Virginia blocked eight Sooner shots.
10 – West Virginia’s Teddy Allen scored 10 of his team-high 20 points in the final 12 minutes of the game. He scored all 20 points in just 24 minutes of action.
14 – Consecutive wins by West Virginia since losing their first game of the season. The Mountaineers win on Saturday snapped a 10-game Oklahoma winning streak.
18-6 – Second-half run by West Virginia with their leading scorer and ball defender Jevon Carter on the bench with four fouls for a good stretch of the second half.
21-9 – Points off of turnovers by which West Virginia outscored the Sooners.
53-51 – Oklahoma’s lead at the 13:30 mark in the second half. That was the last time the Sooners would lead in the game.