Oklahoma basketball: Three-pointers from OU’s win over No. 9 West Virginia
By Chip Rouse
For a good part of the second half on Saturday, it looked more like the Sooner football team than Oklahoma basketball.
Free throws in the final minute of play by Austin Reaves and Jalen Hill allowed Oklahoma hold on in the closing seconds and pull out a 75-71 win in a game that appeared through much of the second half was headed for a monumental Sooner collapse.
After taking an 11-10 lead five minutes into the game, Oklahoma went on a 28-10 run to take and 18-point, 38-20 advantage at the half.
The second half was a completely different story. A 9-0 run by West Virginia to begin the second half cut Oklahoma’s 18-point lead in half, and midway through the second stanza, the entire 18-point Sooner advantage had been erased as the ninth-ranked Mountaineers had drawn even at 52 apiece.
The game was tied twice more over the final nine minutes, but the Sooners never trailed from that point and managed to close it out at the end.
This was definitely a game of two halves, with the Sooners dominating the opening 20 minutes and West Virginia roaring back after halftime to make the game close going down the stretch.
Oklahoma, playing for the first time in 11 days, improved its season record to 6-2 and 2-1 in Big 12 play. West Virginia suffered it second straight conference loss and dropped to 8-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12.
Here are three-pointers that help tell the main story of the Oklahoma win over ranked West Virginia:
The 3-point shooting of OU’s Umoja Gibson was the difference in the game
North Texas transfer Gibson was unconscious from behind the three-point line, draining eight of 11 from long range and a number of them at critical stages in the second half. He ended with a game-high 29 points. He also had five rebounds and two steals for Oklahoma.
Gibson accounted for eight of the Sooners 11 made treys. As a team, however, Oklahoma made just 11 of 35 three-point shots. West Virginia was able to stay in the game largely behind 14 of 24 (58.3 percent) three-point shooting.
West Virginia freshman Jalen Bridges was almost as good from three-point range for the Mountaineers, making five of six three-point attempts. West Virginia also got a three-point contribution form Taz Sherman off the bench. Sherman shot four of six from long range and contributed 19 points, the only points scored by the Mountaineer reserves.
West Virginia’s ice-cold first-half shooting opened the door for the Sooners
West Virginia shot just 23 percent (7 of 30) from the field in the first half. The Mountaineers went eight and a half minutes during one stretch without making a basket. During that span, the Sooners outscored West Virginia 14-1, leading to a 38-20 halftime advantage.
The Mountaineers improved to 57 percent in the second half, but were still outshot by OU for the game, 42 to 40 percent. The Sooners are now 22-1 over the last two seasons when they outshoot their opponent.
Oklahoma wins battle of points in paint and second-chance points
The Sooners outrebounded West Virginia 41-36, and that led to a 26-16 advantage in points in the paint, as well as a 13-2 edge for Oklahoma in second-chance points. The Mountaineers came into the game leading the Big 12 in offensive rebounds, averaging over 14 a game, but they were outrebounded by the Sooners 10-8 on the offensive boards.
This might not have happened had West Virginia had the services of two big inside men who became unavailable this past week. Six-foot, 10-inch freshman Isaiah Cottrell torn his Achilles in a game with Northeastern on Tuesday, and 6-foot, 9-inch Oscar Tshiebwe left the team on Friday for personal reasons.
The Sooner reserves outscored the starters
Aided largely by Gibson’s 29 points off the bench, the OU reserves outscored the starters 39-36.