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02-06-2018, 08:23 AM
West Virginia used 17 points from Lamont West, 15 of those coming in the first half, to outlast 17th-ranked Oklahoma, 73-73, at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma on Monday night.
"Lamont made shots like we all know Lamont can do and in the second half we couldn't make one; Lamont couldn't make one and we just had to grind it out," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show.
Once again West Virginia struggled after it got a double-digit lead, the Mountaineers going scoreless over the first 5:26 of the second half before Jevon Carter's layup finally ended the drought.
WVU twice had leads of 11 at 58-47 and 60-49 before OU went to work whittling it down. Two Trae Young free throws made it a five-point game with 8:26 remaining, and OU eventually got it to three, 66-63, on Young's layup.
Esa Ahmad answered on the other end with a pair of free throws, and the WVU lead soon welled to seven with 2:57 remaining on an Ahmad dunk, and again with 2:21 to go on Konate's basket. But Brady Manek responded with a layup and Khadeem Lattin's 3 with 1:32 left came after Carter couldn't get his layup try to go down.
More misses by Carter and Beetle Bolden opened the door for Oklahoma to make it a one-point game when Rashard Odomes scored with 24 seconds left. Ahmad was fouled by Young with 13 seconds remaining and got the first free throw to go down, but he missed the second to open the door for Oklahoma to either tie the game with a two or win it with a 3.
Lattin rebounded the miss and the basketball eventually got to Odomes along the baseline, but his reverse layup attempt to tie it bounced off the backboard and time ran out. Huggins couldn't help much offensively from the bench because his team had burned up all of its timeouts with nearly 10 minutes to go.
The first half was a completely different game for West Virginia, now 18-6, 7-4.
The Mountaineers shot 56.8 percent overall and 61.5 percent from 3, mostly from West, who made five straight at one point. Bolden also sank a pair of 3s and Wesley Harris hit his only triple.
Then came those second half misses, first from Konate, then Carter and then Ahmad.
Ahmad missed again; then Harris missed; then Carter; then Konate and then Carter with two more clanks before he finally got his layup to go through the net with 14:34 remaining.
Fortunately, Oklahoma (16-7, 6-5) was bricking them, too, the Sooners only capable of making two field goals during West Virginia's cold spell.
Young, whose every move is now seemingly chronicled, scored 32 points and only took 20 shots tonight to get it. When he scored 29 the first time these two teams met in Morgantown, he jacked up 22, making only eight while turning the ball over eight times.
In OU's most recent loss at Texas on Saturday, Young also tried 22 shots, hitting just seven for 19 points. The rest of the freshman's stat line tonight included six turnovers and a season-low one assist, that coming with 1:32 remaining on Lattin's dunk.
ESPN.com's Jake Trotter reported earlier tonight that Young was a little bit under the weather. West Virginia had little sympathy for Young's plight, however, as the Mountaineers suffered through a bad flu spell last week that contributed to their disappointing 93-77 loss at Iowa State.
The Sooners were held 25 points below their season scoring average at the Noble Center tonight.
Konate scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked two shots for West Virginia. Ahmad scored 14 and Carter added 10 points, eight assists and six steals despite shooting just 5-of-17 from the floor.
It was WVU's first Big Monday win of the year after losses to Kansas and TCU. West Virginia has two more Big Monday games left against TCU in Morgantown on Feb. 12 and against Texas Tech in Morgantown on Feb. 26.
"I think we're back to being the competitive, refuse-to-lose guys that we were," Huggins said. "We lose a couple games we coulda, shoulda won but we just didn't make any shots."
Huggins joked on his postgame radio show that he decided to change his team's luck by wearing a goatee for the Kansas State game last Saturday. Now that West Virginia has won two in a row, he is forced to keep wearing it.
"I can't shave the thing off until we lose now," he said.
Hopefully, Huggins gets that thing looking like Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner's beard before he finally has to get rid of it.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers swept the season series against the Sooners tonight to take sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings, one-half game behind league-leading Texas Tech and Kansas.
"Texas Tech right now is in the catbird's seat," Huggins remarked. "We need somebody to get them and we need to get them in Morgantown."
West Virginia returns to action this Saturday at the Coliseum facing Oklahoma State in a noon game televised nationally on ESPN. The Cowboys recently knocked off Kansas on the Jayhawks' home floor Saturday and plays Baylor tomorrow night.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/2/5/mens-...d-win.aspx
"Lamont made shots like we all know Lamont can do and in the second half we couldn't make one; Lamont couldn't make one and we just had to grind it out," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said on his postgame radio show.
Once again West Virginia struggled after it got a double-digit lead, the Mountaineers going scoreless over the first 5:26 of the second half before Jevon Carter's layup finally ended the drought.
WVU twice had leads of 11 at 58-47 and 60-49 before OU went to work whittling it down. Two Trae Young free throws made it a five-point game with 8:26 remaining, and OU eventually got it to three, 66-63, on Young's layup.
Esa Ahmad answered on the other end with a pair of free throws, and the WVU lead soon welled to seven with 2:57 remaining on an Ahmad dunk, and again with 2:21 to go on Konate's basket. But Brady Manek responded with a layup and Khadeem Lattin's 3 with 1:32 left came after Carter couldn't get his layup try to go down.
More misses by Carter and Beetle Bolden opened the door for Oklahoma to make it a one-point game when Rashard Odomes scored with 24 seconds left. Ahmad was fouled by Young with 13 seconds remaining and got the first free throw to go down, but he missed the second to open the door for Oklahoma to either tie the game with a two or win it with a 3.
Lattin rebounded the miss and the basketball eventually got to Odomes along the baseline, but his reverse layup attempt to tie it bounced off the backboard and time ran out. Huggins couldn't help much offensively from the bench because his team had burned up all of its timeouts with nearly 10 minutes to go.
The first half was a completely different game for West Virginia, now 18-6, 7-4.
The Mountaineers shot 56.8 percent overall and 61.5 percent from 3, mostly from West, who made five straight at one point. Bolden also sank a pair of 3s and Wesley Harris hit his only triple.
Then came those second half misses, first from Konate, then Carter and then Ahmad.
Ahmad missed again; then Harris missed; then Carter; then Konate and then Carter with two more clanks before he finally got his layup to go through the net with 14:34 remaining.
Fortunately, Oklahoma (16-7, 6-5) was bricking them, too, the Sooners only capable of making two field goals during West Virginia's cold spell.
Young, whose every move is now seemingly chronicled, scored 32 points and only took 20 shots tonight to get it. When he scored 29 the first time these two teams met in Morgantown, he jacked up 22, making only eight while turning the ball over eight times.
In OU's most recent loss at Texas on Saturday, Young also tried 22 shots, hitting just seven for 19 points. The rest of the freshman's stat line tonight included six turnovers and a season-low one assist, that coming with 1:32 remaining on Lattin's dunk.
ESPN.com's Jake Trotter reported earlier tonight that Young was a little bit under the weather. West Virginia had little sympathy for Young's plight, however, as the Mountaineers suffered through a bad flu spell last week that contributed to their disappointing 93-77 loss at Iowa State.
The Sooners were held 25 points below their season scoring average at the Noble Center tonight.
Konate scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked two shots for West Virginia. Ahmad scored 14 and Carter added 10 points, eight assists and six steals despite shooting just 5-of-17 from the floor.
It was WVU's first Big Monday win of the year after losses to Kansas and TCU. West Virginia has two more Big Monday games left against TCU in Morgantown on Feb. 12 and against Texas Tech in Morgantown on Feb. 26.
"I think we're back to being the competitive, refuse-to-lose guys that we were," Huggins said. "We lose a couple games we coulda, shoulda won but we just didn't make any shots."
Huggins joked on his postgame radio show that he decided to change his team's luck by wearing a goatee for the Kansas State game last Saturday. Now that West Virginia has won two in a row, he is forced to keep wearing it.
"I can't shave the thing off until we lose now," he said.
Hopefully, Huggins gets that thing looking like Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner's beard before he finally has to get rid of it.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers swept the season series against the Sooners tonight to take sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings, one-half game behind league-leading Texas Tech and Kansas.
"Texas Tech right now is in the catbird's seat," Huggins remarked. "We need somebody to get them and we need to get them in Morgantown."
West Virginia returns to action this Saturday at the Coliseum facing Oklahoma State in a noon game televised nationally on ESPN. The Cowboys recently knocked off Kansas on the Jayhawks' home floor Saturday and plays Baylor tomorrow night.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/2/5/mens-...d-win.aspx
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