OU Basketball: Oklahoma Closes Out Tight Big 12 Win Over West Virginia
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NORMAN — Oklahoma finally survived a tight Big 12 battle at home.
Porter Moser’s Sooners saw a nine-point lead evaporate over the final 12 minutes of Saturday’s contest with West Virginia at Lloyd Noble Center, once again forcing OU to execute late.
OU lost its first two conference home games against Iowa State and Texas by four combined points. But this time, Jalen Hill made four free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory.
Hill hit a pair of free throws to put the Sooners up 72-70 with 31 seconds left.
Moser then went small defensively, opting for true freshman Otega Oweh and C.J. Noland instead of either Tanner Groves or Sam Godwin.
The gambit worked, as the Sooners successfully switched to contest Erik Stevenson’s 3-pointer.
Hill came down with the rebound and was fouled, sinking another pair of free throws to put OU up 74-70 with 15 seconds left.
On the ensuing possession, Stevenson drew a non-shooting foul but missed the back end of the 1-and-1, and Groves pulled down the defensive rebound with Oklahoma up three to ice the team’s second Big 12 victory.
West Virginia cut it to 77-76 as Seth Wilson’s consolation 3-pointer beat the buzzer for the Mountaineers.
“Man, you can't ask for anything more than doing it to get the confidence of pulling it out in the close ones,” Moser said. “Two out of three, we've done it.
“… I thought the two stops we got under a minute… They were doing iso and getting to the free throw line, iso and making some tough shots. Then we finally got two stops.”
The decision to go small toward the end was matchup based, Moser said, and it paid off to help the Sooners secure the win defensively.
On the other end of the floor, Grant Sherfield carried over his strong offensive performance from OU’s loss against Kansas on Saturday.
He paced the Sooners (11-6 overall, 2-3 Big 12) with 22 points on 5-of-15 shooting, consistently getting to the free thrown line to knock down 9-of-11 foul shots.
“He was big. The five assists I really liked,” Moser said. “… We're better when he's in that five plus assists category because they're keying on him and then he can give it up. I know he missed some shots that he he wished he had back.
“The bottom line is he wants to get to that foul line at the end. And he's just an outstanding free throw shooter. Getting to that line is a big thing for him because he's good at the end of the game to give us all confidence.”
Behind Sherfield, the Sooners got offensive contributions up and down the lineup.
OU shot 56 percent from the floor as a team, the same exact same as West Virginia (10-7, 0-5), and eight other Oklahoma players scored in the victory.
Hill continued his strong offensive showings in Big 12 play, finishing as OU’s second-leading scorer with 14 points and six rebounds.
Freshman guards Milos Uzan also finished in double figures, adding 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting for Oklahoma.
But OU held on despite the offense going cold at the end of the game.
Hill rose up for a dunk with 6:14 left, but that was the Sooners’ final field goal of the contest.
Oklahoma hit 11 straight free throws to close out the win as the offense sputtered.
“They’re a physical team so I’m just trying to get down and get them into foul trouble so we can get to the free-throw line,” Uzan said. “The past couple games, teams have been beating us because of free throws so we’re just trying to get to the line late in games, knock em down.”
The Sooners also survived despite losing the turnover battle 14-5, but OU outrebounded the physical Mountaineers 29-19.
“It felt great,” Hill said. “I mean, we got every loose ball toward the end, every rebounds was ours. I just think we did a great job closing it out and just finding a way. That’s it pretty much.”
Things don’t let up after Oklahoma closed out the must-win game.
Next, OU will travel to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State in the first Bedlam basketball battle of the season.
Tip-off between the Sooners and the Cowboys is slated for 8 p.m. on Wednesday night, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Now winners of two of their last three, the Sooners will carry some confidence into Gallagher-Iba Arena.
“What’s hard in this league is to get beat down a little bit,” Moser said. “You can’t stay down. You’ve got to come back… And the thing that I tell them after Kansas is keep believing. Keep believing. We’re good.
“We’re playing the top teams in the country and if we’re sitting here five games in and we’ve lost them by 20 each I’m probably searching. But I believe. These guys should too because every game is going to be like this. That margin for error is small on either side.”
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