No. 17 WVU basketball ends losing skid, beats Oklahoma State 65-47
No. 17/18 West Virginia (19-7, 7-6) snapped its three-game losing streak with a 65-47 home win over Oklahoma State (13-13, 3-10) Tuesday night.
With the victory, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins now has 879 career wins, tying Dean Smith for sixth all-time in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
Back and forth action between the two teams started things off and Oklahoma State held a 10-8 lead over West Virginia at the 15:37 mark in the first half.
The Mountaineers and Cowboys were struggling to get shots to go in over the next few minutes and the 10-8 score remained until the 11:37 mark when Sean McNeil made a jump shot to tie the game up at 10-all.
After McNeil’s jumper, the Cowboys responded with a 12-2 run to take a 22-12 lead over West Virginia with 7:22 left until halftime.
Emmitt Matthews ended the Oklahoma State run with a layup and the Mountaineers would cut their deficit down to eight points numerous times over the next few minutes, but the Cowboys answered back each time.
A three-pointer from Taz Sherman made it a seven-point game in favor of Oklahoma State and another basket from Sherman cut West Virginia’s deficit down to five points at 30-25 with 1:45 to go until halftime.
Oklahoma State went on to make three free throws to extend its lead to eight, but Jermaine Haley hit a three-pointer at the first half buzzer to put the score at 33-28 in favor of the Cowboys at halftime.
Halftime Stats:
West Virginia opened the second half on a 10-0 run and took a 38-33 lead with just under 15 minutes left in the game. Four more points from the Mountaineers gave them a seven-point lead later on.
Oklahoma State struggled offensively during the second half and at one point was just 2-of-19 from the floor during half as the Mountaineers extended its lead to 48-37 with 8:20 to go.
The Mountaineers continued to add to and maintain their lead over the next few minutes and led by a score of 57-42 with 3:44 to go after a layup from Haley.
From there, West Virginia was able to finish off Oklahoma State and snap its three-game losing skid.
Up next for the Mountaineers is a road matchup against TCU Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.
Final Stats:
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