by (Photo by Adriel Clements )
By John Antonik
No. 15 Oklahoma used a dominant inside performance in the second half to defeat West Virginia 77-63 tonight at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The Sooners scored 40 points in the paint, 24 of those in the second half, to snap their two-game losing streak and improve to 14-3, 2-2.
Oklahoma controlled the glass, 33 to 19, and limited West Virginia to just three field goals over the first six minutes of the second half to take control of the game.
OU’s lead swelled to 11 on John Hugley IV’s two free throws, and then to 15 on Rivaldo Soares’ 3-pointer with 10:51 remaining.
The Sooners’ biggest lead was 19 points with 7:52 left and never dipped below 12.
“The things that stand out most to me are fast-break points and second-chance points, not to mention the rebounds,” West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said. “We didn’t rebound it whatsoever. We credited the win against Texas and the way we approached the game in terms of everyone’s got one and take away all those second-chance points.”
Forward Jalon Moore led all scorers with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Georgia Tech transfer grabbed five rebounds, assisted on two baskets and made two of his three free throw attempts.
Soares and guard Javian McCollum contributed 13 points each while sophomore guard Otega Oweh finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Oklahoma shot 63.6% in the second half (14 of 24) primarily because of its decision to get the ball close to the basket. In the first half, the Sooners shot just 37.9% with seven of those misses coming from behind the 3-point arc.
“I saw what (Oklahoma coach Porter Moser) was trying to do – he wanted to force the issue and take it downhill and the aggressor gets the call. That typically happens,” Eilert said.
Oklahoma scored on 36 of its 70 offensive possessions in a game with just three lead changes and two ties.
West Virginia’s last lead was 18-16 with 6:16 left in the first half.
Guard Noah Farrakhan led the Mountaineers with 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting. RaeQuan Battle added 12 but struggled from the field by connecting on only 4 of his 13 shot attempts.
Quinn Slazinski was the only other WVU player to reach double figures with 10.
“This league is so hard defensively in the half court, no matter who you play,” Eilert explained. “I tell these guys over and over if we can’t convert some fast-break points and get some second chances, it’s a struggle.
“So, we had 2 fast-break points and 6 second-chance points and only one guy on the floor for us got any offensive rebounds and that was Pat Suemnick, and he got three,” Eilert said.
Suemnick continued his streak of solid play of late with 9 points and seven rebounds tonight. He scored 12 in the Houston loss on Jan. 6 and had a career-high 16 in last Saturday’s 76-73 victory over Texas.
The Mountaineers made 21 of their 46 field goal attempts for 45.7%, including 7 of 23 from 3-point range for 30.4%, and turned the ball over 16 times leading to 16 OU points.
“We weren’t there tonight. We were a step slow,” Eilert said. “Our minds were a step slow. Our bodies were a step slow and we didn’t get any 50-50 balls.
“We didn’t get a chance to practice yesterday because we had nearly 10 hours of travel time (because of Tuesday’s snowstorm) with all the flight issues. We had to go a little heavier today during shoot around, which I don’t like to do, to get some of the things covered what we needed to get covered,” Eilert said. “They played a good game, but they didn’t play an extraordinary game. A lot of that was on us.”
Tonight’s loss drops West Virginia’s record to 6-11, 1-3, and just 2-10 in Norman. Oklahoma is now 18-10 against the Mountaineers in what could be the final game between these two schools as conference members.
