[Westside]

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Earlier this week, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was so unhappy with his team's enthusiasm that he threw them out of practice.

Tonight, they got the message.

The Mountaineers sent wave after wave of defenders at Oklahoma's terrific freshman guard Trae Young and the result was a satisfying 89-76 victory over the seventh-ranked Sooners here at the WVU Coliseum Saturday night.

"I thought our guys really competed," Huggins said.

Young got his average of 29 points per game, but it took him 22 shots and 13 free throws to get it. He missed 14, including 9 of 12 misfires from 3 and turned the ball over eight times. There were several instances tonight when he was visibly bothered by West Virginia's defenders.

And he saw just about all of them.

Carter limited him to only 9 first-half points before picking up three quick fouls in the second half to retire to the bench with 13:30 remaining and the Sooners leading 53-51.

But teammates Daxter Miles Jr, James Bolden and Teddy Allen picked up last year's defensive player of the year, and West Virginia went on an 18-6 run over a six-minute span to take a commanding 69-59 lead when Sagaba Konate banged in an open jumper from the foul line with 7:42 left.

Then it was Allen, then Konate and then Allen again as West Virginia matched the nation's top-ranked scoring offense basket for basket.

"When (Carter is) not in there, that doesn't change what they do, and I thought that they continued to do what they wanted to do and did it well," Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said.
A quick four-point burst did pull the Sooners to within six with 2:42 to go, but Carter now back in the game, answered with a layup to push the lead back to eight, 80-72.

Young's missed layup at the other end resulted in an easy basket for Daxter Miles Jr. at the other end on a baseball pass from Carter to return West Virginia's lead to double digits.

Once more, West Virginia was tremendous at the free throw line coming down the stretch, the Mountaineers hitting all four charities inside of a minute to go and converting 18-of-21 for the game.

In its three Big 12 games this year, WVU is 58-of-69 from the line for an impressive 84.1 percent.

The unheralded freshman in tonight's game, WVU's Teddy Allen, continued his outstanding play in Big 12 action with a team-best 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting coming off the bench. Allen has scored 15, 22 and 20 in his three conference games this year.

"I had no idea he got 20 points," Huggins marveled. "The biggest two he got was when we were really struggling and he rebounded it and took it in and scored. That was huge."

Carter finished with 17 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and three steals. He scored 12 straight points for the Mountaineers during one stretch late in the first half and was on pace for a triple-double with 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists at halftime.

That was before the whistles began blowing. Joining Carter in the four-foul club were Miles Jr., Lamont West and Wesley Harris.

West contributed 17 points and sophomore forward Sagaba Konate finished with 16 points, a career-high 13 rebounds and five blocks. On several occasions in the second half, Oklahoma chose to back off of Konate and allowed him to shoot wide-open jumpers at the elbow.

"It's crazy because I'm watching the film and I'm watching last year and they didn't guard him," Huggins said. "I told Sags, 'Listen, you're going to get a ton of shots at the foul line because they are going to pack it in and try and take away our curls and our duck-ins with their bigs. You've got to make shots.' When he heard jump shots he was in here working at it."

Bolden finished with 6 but handled the point efficiently in the second half when Carter was on the bench in foul trouble.

"I thought everybody we put on the floor played pretty well," Huggins said.

Young's supporting cast also struggled to make shots for the Sooners, now 12-2, 2-1, particularly third-leading scorer Brady Manek who came into tonight's game with an 11.1 average. He took just two shots and failed to score. Overall, OU shot just 43.1 percent after connecting on better than 50 percent as a team through its first 13 games of the season.

The Sooners were much better in the second half, though, making half of their 24 attempt.

West Virginia (14-1, 3-0) was also much better shooting the basketball following the break, connecting on 15-of-27 for 55.6 percent once it decided to quit jacking 3s to try and keep up with the Sooners.

WVU tried 20 in the first half, making six, and attempted just six the entire second half.

"We played in a hurry," Huggins said of West Virginia's first-half performance. "I thought we slowed down in the second half and that's kind of what we talked about at halftime. We were rushing things and trying to make plays that weren't there, particularly our two seniors were trying to will us to a win and just went too fast."

The Mountaineers return to the Coliseum Tuesday night to face Baylor at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. The Bears got their first league win of the season earlier today at home against Texas.


http://wvusports.com/news/2018/1/6/mens-...ahoma.aspx