Oklahoma basketball: Sooners’ home mastery broken by West Virginia
By Chip Rouse
Trae Young collected 32 points but the Oklahoma basketball mastery at home came to an end on Monday, as West Virginia held on for a 75-73 victory.
The Sooners won the scoreboard in the second half, outscoring West Virginia 33-25 in the final 20 minutes, but they fell too far behind in the first half and were never able to make up the difference. OU had a terrific opportunity to take advantage of a West Virginia scoring drought that lasted over five minutes to open the second half and weren’t able to capitalize.
No. 17 Oklahoma made one of 12 shots and committed two turnovers before the 19th-ranked Mountaineers scored their first basket of the second half. That was where this game was lost, irrespective of the 10-point West Virginia lead at halftime.
Young, who was reported to be under the weather, did not appear to be himself missing badly on several three-point attempts early, but still had 17 points in the first half, mostly on drives to the basket, but no assists. Head coach Lon Kruger rested him on the bench for almost three minutes in the first half.
West Virginia sophomore Lamont West was on fire early, nailing his first five three-point shots to help the Mountaineers race out to a 10-point advantage in the first 10-minutes of the game. Oklahoma’s last lead in the game was at 16-15 at the 13:01 mark of the first half.
The Mountaineers made eight three-pointers out of 13 attempts in the first half, but were just one for 12 from long range in the second half.
Four West Virginia players scored in double figures. led by West’s 17 points. The Mountaineers were all over the offensive and defensive glass in the first half, outrebounding the Sooners 18-11, with six of those coming on the offensive end.
The Sooners did a better job of rebounding in the second half, but the Mountaineers still came away with a number of offensive rebounds, especially in the final eight minutes of the game, when the Sooners could get closer than five points until under two minutes remained in the game.
Once again, OU didn’t give Young much offensive support. Fellow freshman Brady Manek contributed 12 points, but no other Sooner was able to reach double figures and the bench delivered just 10 points, compared with 23 by the West Virginia reserves.
The Sooners had an opportunity to tie or win the game in the final 13 seconds, but misfired on a couple of opportunities at the rim as the horn sounded ending the game.
It was Oklahoma’s first home loss after 14 consecutive wins at home. Ironically, West Virginia was the last team to beat the Sooners in Norman, handing OU a 61-50 defeat almost one year ago.
Young’s final stat line was 32 points, just one assist, two rebounds and six turnovers.
West Virginia sweeps the season series with the Sooners for the second consecutive year.
Oklahoma falls to 16-7 on the season and 6-5 in the Big 12 and has lost five of its last seven games. West Virginia is now 18-6 overall and 7-4 in Big 12 action, one game behind conference co-leaders Kansas and Texas Tech.