Oklahoma outlasts West Virginia 77-63
West Virginia got out to an early lead, but a strong second half led Oklahoma to a 77-63 win over the Mountaineers in Norman.
West Virginia was led in scoring by guard Noah Farrakhan had 14 points, while guard RaeQuan Battle scored 12 points, forward Quinn Slazinski chipped in with 10 points and forward Patrick Suemnick finished with 9.
The Mountaineers kicked off the scoring with a layup from Josiah Harris as the two teams started slow to find a rhythm over the first three minutes. A Harris three-ball gave him the team's first five points of the game followed by a pair of Suemnick free throws to put the score at 8-7 in favor of the Sooners with 15:31 left in the fist half.
West Virginia would surged ahead 11-10 after back-to-back baskets by Suemnick as the Mountaineers moved the basketball well on the offensive end for some easy buckets.
The edge would sit at 18-12 at the 8:13 mark as the Mountaineers continued to frustrate Oklahoma on the defensive end. The Sooners were shooting just 24-percent with 7 turnovers as West Virginia was able to make things difficult on that end.
The Sooners would use a 8-0 run to take a 20-18 edge with 5:27 left in the half and would outscore the Mountaineers 17-7 down the stretch to take a 29-25 lead into the locker room after turning up the defensive pressure themselves.
Oklahoma would open the second half on a 7-0 run to extend the lead to 34-25 and the Sooners would maintain a good distance through the entire ten minutes. The Mountaineers continued to battle, but the Sooners would take their largest lead at 61-42 with 7:29 left in the game as the home team controlled the second half.
The Mountaineers would make several runs, but couldn't close the gap falling by double digits to the Sooners.
With the loss, West Virginia dropped to 6-11 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12 Conference.
West Virginia will next host Kansas at 4 p.m. Saturday inside the Coliseum.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan
