NCAA News Wire
West Virginia 88, Oklahoma 65
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Behind a dominant performance from its bench, No. 16 West Virginia’s buried No. 18 Oklahoma, 86-65.
Jevon Carter scored 14 of his 18 in the second half, Nathan Adrian added a season-high 11 and the Mountaineers reserves outscored the Sooners bench, 55-8.
Devin Williams grabbed 11 rebounds and finished with 14 points, the lone starter in double figures for West Virginia (15-2, 3-1 Big 12).
Buddy Hield scored 21 points to pace Oklahoma (11-5, 2-2), which committed a season-worst 22 turnovers.
Mountaineers point guard Juwan Staten didn’t score until 6:37 remained in the game, hitting a pair of free throws for a 70-52 lead that also made West Virginia the first team to crack 69 points against the Sooners all season.
Staten finished with a season-low four points but dished out eight assists.
Thanks to its hawkish full-court press, which leads Division I with 12.8 steals per game, West Virginia grabbed 16 to frustrate the Sooners.
Isaiah Cousins added 14 points and Ryan Spangler had 11 in the loss.
West Virginia led 60-40 after an 8-0 run that spanned only 60 seconds and was capped by forward Elijah Macon 3-point conversion on a putback-and-foul.
West Virginia closed the first half on a 10-0 run to lead 45-32, building the cushion despite an 0-for-6 start by All-America candidate Juwan Staten. The reserves handily picked up the slack by outscoring Oklahoma’s bench 32-4.
That included nine points from Adrian, whose early 3-pointer ended a personal streak of 15 consecutive long-range misses dating back nine games to Dec. 4. The slump lowered the sophomore’s 3-point rate to only 15 percent.
The Sooners came in committing only 12 turnovers per game, yet suffered 15 during the opening half. One of those came on a forward Jonathan Holton deflection that led to guard Tarik Phillip’s layup. West Virginia’s backup guard scored eight in the half, double his season average.
NOTES: The Mountaineers boasted a No. 19 RPI entering the game, while Oklahoma was 28th. … With a 754-304 coaching record, Bob Huggins needs one win to equal Henry Iba for 13th on the NCAA career wins list. … Oklahoma transfer F TaShawn Thomas made his 112th consecutive college start, dating back to his first three seasons at Houston. … The Mountaineers began Tuesday night with five players who ranked among the league’s top 14 in steals. … Sooners G Buddy Hield entered the game leading the Big 12 in 3-point baskets (44) and attempts (114). … West Virginia’s 44.6 percent field-goal defense ranked 274th out of 351 teams in Division I. Oklahoma’s defense (36.3 percent) ranked 10th.
