West Virginia had every chance to win on Saturday but missed free throws and a botched play late led Oklahoma to a 77-76 win over the Mountaineers on Saturday.
West Virginia had the game tied at 70-70 and had just forced a miss from the Sooners. The Mountaineers had two chances at the rebound but could not secure it as Oklahoma would end the possession making two free throws.
The Mountaineers would call a timeout with 25.5 seconds left, trailing by two points. Out of the timeout though, Erik Stevenson rushed a fadeaway three-pointer which never had a chance, and West Virginia fell in their fifth-straight game.
Oklahoma had full control of the majority of the second half, before West Virginia’s defense got the Mountaineers back into the game.
The Sooners led by as many as nine in the second half, and by as many as seven with 7:38 to play. West Virginia would hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions, as they would trail by three with 6:38 remaining.
Oklahoma would make their last field goal at the 6:14 mark of the second half, with Jalen Hill hammering a dunk to put the Sooners ahead by five. West Virginia would score the next four points of the game over, with a layup from Stevenson to put West Virginia down by one with 4:34 to play.
With 3:19 to play, an Emmitt Matthews dunk put Oklahoma in front by one. After getting a stop, Matthews would have another chance to finish at the rim and put West Virginia ahead but he could not.
Then with 1:43 to play, Tre Mitchell went to the free throw line with a chance to give WVU their first lead of the game. Mitchell would miss the first free throw, but make the second, to tie the game at 70-70.
Then, over the final 1:43, Oklahoma went to the free throw line eight times, and made seven of their attempts. West Virginia went to the line 16 times in the game and would miss eight attempts. Mitchell missed two in the first half, with Oklahoma’s head coach Porter Moser being assessed with a technical foul.
Then down the stretch, Joe Toussaint had the chance to put West Virginia in front with just over a minute left but missed both free throws.
Oklahoma led 31-29 at halftime, as WVU played 11 guys in the first half.
Oklahoma’s leading scorer was Gran Sherfield with 22 points, while Mitchell paced WVU with 16 points.
