The Sooners used a strong second half surge to power past West Virginia in a must win game on Wednesday night. Having lost back-to-back games on the road last week, it was imperative that they defend the home court, especially against an unraked opponent.
“We needed to win tonight to stop the bleeding,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said post game. Win is exactly what they did, and the result is an equal 2-2 record in conference play, placing them in a tie with six other schools, including Saturday’s opponent, Cincinnati.
It wasn’t a smooth start though, as the Mountaineers established an early 18-12 lead, before OU could use an 8-0 run, to move in front, before ultimately building a 29-25 lead at the break. The second half was all Sooners though as they outscored the Mountaineers 48-38 over the final twenty minutes of the game. Jalon Moore went off for 16 points while Javian McCollum and Rivaldo Soares added 13 points each to lead Oklahoma.
Prior to the game, we gave out three keys for Oklahoma to have success. I thought it might be fun to look back and see how close we were to being accurate.
1. Defend the perimeter
West Virginia came into the game shooting 30.3% from three-point range, but guards Noah Farrakhan and Kerr Kriisa were shooting 35.7 and 39.6 percent respectively from long-range. Meanwhile, Oklahoma was holding opponents to just 27.6% from beyond the arch, and the Mountaineers were just a bit better than that, making 7 of their 23 attempts for a 30.4 shooting percentage. Farrakhan only attempted two shots from three, making one of them, while Krissa was 0-4.
2. Shoot High Percentage Shots
The Sooners came into this game shooting 48.9% from the floor. They made 25 of 51 attempts on Wednesday night, putting them right at that average with a 49% performance. From three-point range, OU shot 33.3% from three-point range, which is a higher percentage than the previous two games, but it still needs to be a few points higher.
3. Crash The Boards
Oklahoma was five rebounds off its season average on Wednesday night but still had an solid advantage over West Virginia. The Sooners outrebounded the Mountaineers by a margin of 33-19. Otega Oweh led all players in the game with 10 boards, seven of which came on the defensive end of the floor.
What I Missed
We nailed two of the three keys (High Percentage Shots & Rebounds), but there was another factor that I totally missed out on…defensive pressure. The Mountaineers committed 16 turnovers and looked uncomfortable all night. After the game, WVU head coach Josh Eilert said that it was pressure from the Sooners that gave them problems. “It just really shortened our possessions to where we got into a point in time where we were a little bit frantic and we were taking bad shots throughout the course of the game, weren’t really sharing that basketball,” Eilert said.
What’s Next?
Oklahoma is back on the road, for the third time in four games, on Saturday. The Sooners travel to Cincinnati to take on a Bearcats squad that is 13-4 on the season and has an equal 2-2 conference record as OU. That game is scheduled for a Noon tipoff.
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