Oklahoma Keeps Tournament Hopes Alive With Victory Over West Virginia

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s late push to make the NCAA Tournament continued on Tuesday night.

Hosting the Big 12-worst West Virginia Mountaineers, the Sooners were able to emerge victorious on Senior Night, notching a 72-59 win at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The victory was the first time since Jan. 1 that OU has been able to stack back-to-back wins, and it moved the Sooners to 16-14 overall and 6-11 in Big 12 play. The loss dropped West Virginia to 14-16, 3-14 in head coach Bob Huggins’ 15th year in Morgantown.

Oklahoma got contributions from multiple spots in the lineup to help build a 28-14 lead midway through the first half, but a West Virginia run cut the deficit considerably headed into halftime.

The Mountaineers closed the first half on a 10-0 burst, and then banked the first points out of the locker room to pull within two points straight out of the locker room.

But in the face of the West Virginia pressure, the Sooners never relinquished the lead in the second half.

"They were just physical bottling us up and I thought we just got a lot more movement in the second half," OU head coach Porter Moser said in a Zoom press conference after the game. "We were going downhill.

"Instead of us just setting these ball screens with no movement into it, we got some movement into the ball screens and we were able to go downhill."

Steady guard play by both Jordan Goldwire and Bijan Cortes kept the OU offense running, and eight different Oklahoma players were able to contribute offensively as a result.

Moser said his two guards were able to work in tandem to keep Goldwire fresh, paving the way for a big close to the contest.

"For (Goldwire), I like him at 29-30 minutes," Moser said. "It gives him a break to stay fresh. I thought he was fresher at the end of the game than he was in other games.

"... And that's a credit to Bijan. I thought Bijan was able to give us some really good minutes."

For the majority of the second half, it appeared as if the Sooners wouldn't be able to find any separation. The OU lead mostly floated between four and eight points for the duration of the second half and keeping the sparsely packed Lloyd Noble Center a non-factor in the contest.

Unlike Saturday’s Bedlam contest, however, Oklahoma saved their best stretch of the second half for the end of the game.

Tanner Groves scored eight of his game-leading 17 points in the final four minutes of the game, also finishing with 10 rebounds to ignite the home crowd.

"We just knew what we needed to do," Groves said after the game. "By any means, do whatever you can do to get the win.

"... I hit a couple of threes and we just got it going. The momentum carried us from there, and it was all good. I'm happy we were able to send the seniors out with the last home win."

Goldwire finished Oklahoma’s second-leading scorer with 16 points, and Umoja Gibson added 10 points to help seal the win.

Jacob Groves also knocked down a handful of shots from deep, adding nine points for OU, capping off a nice night for the Groves brothers.

The victory makes two straight games where the Oklahoma offense got double-digit scoring contributions from multiple guys, something that has been missing most of the year.

"I really think that was a big part of the game," Moser said. "We’re gonna stay with it.

"... That’s what you need this time. If you can get guys coming in, contributing, finding multiple guys. You can’t win in this league if only one or two guys are having good games."

The Sooners have one regular season game remaining before they pack up and head to Kansas City for next weekend’s Big 12 Tournament. Saturday, OU will travel to Manhattan to square off against Kansas State.

Tip-off between Oklahoma and the Wildcats is scheduled for 3 p.m., and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.

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