West Virginia trailed by 19-points with 11:15 left and rallied to beat Oklahoma State on the road 87-84 in a critical early season Big 12 Conference match up.
WVSports.com Managing Editor Keenan Cummings provides his thoughts and observations from what unfolded and what is on the horizon for the Mountaineers.
--West Virginia trailed by 19 points, 68-49 with 11:15 left in this one and again seemed left for dead. This Mountaineers team found a way to rally and pulled out an improbable 87-84 win over Oklahoma State. It can’t be stated enough how big of a win this is for the Mountaineers considering the circumstances. This team had to basically alter the way it’s played all season on a short turnaround and goes on the road and almost rallies against Oklahoma but finds a way to do it against the Cowboys. There are certainly warts and we’ll get to some of those later but savor this one. It’s not often you see a team make that kind of run by outscoring an opponent 38-16 down the stretch but that’s exactly what happened. This was a game that could be season changing in a lot of ways as the Mountaineers again spread the floor and were able to find success off the bounce and hitting shots. The four-out and one in look really has this team cooking on the offensive end, but obviously there are some defensive concerns that need to be ironed out in the near future. The Mountaineers are now 9-3 and 2-2 in the league and carry some serious momentum home for the Texas match up. It was the 300th win for head coach Bob Huggins at West Virginia and what a win it was this team.
--West Virginia junior big man Derek Culver was a man tonight. He scored 22 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in this one, the most a player has done in each category since Derek Culver did that with 22 points and 21 rebounds against TCU in 2019. The last time that happened before then? It was Warren Baker, who did it two-times in the 1974 calendar year. A total of 7 of those rebounds were on the offensive end of the floor for Culver. But even with how impressive he was at times in those areas, his sequence defending Cade Cunningham and moving with him late in the second half might have been the most impressive thing I saw him do in this game. One in particular stands out that led to an empty possession. He not only played well, but he also played a lot seeing 36-minutes in this game.
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