Mountaineers Miss 52 Shots En Route to 69-59 Loss at Oklahoma

The road woes continued for West Virginia Saturday afternoon as the Mountaineers lost to the Oklahoma Sooners 69-59 in Norman, Oklahoma.

It was the Mountaineers’ (18-5, 6-4 Big 12) eighth road game this season and already their fifth road loss. In Big 12 road games WVU is only 1-5.

For Oklahoma (15-8, 5-5), beating the No. 13 Mountaineers was the team’s biggest win of the season thus far. The Sooners were lead by 27 points from senior forward Kristian Doolittle.

Doolittle is one of three Sooners who averages more than 14 points per game. The others, Austin Reaves and Brady Manek were mostly held in check. Reaves scored six points on only four shots and fouled out in the second half. Manek scored 11 points but only shot 4-14 from the floor and 3-8 from three.

West Virginia played one of its worst offensive games of the season, shooting only 24-76 (31.6%) from the field. It was the most field goals the Mountaineers has attempted in a game this season, but it was also their lowest shooting percentage of the season.

Jermaine Haley (15 points) and Oscar Tshiebwe (12) lead WVU on offense, but they were the only two players to score in double figures and only four Mountaineers overall socred more than five points.

The Sooners shot well on the other end, hitting 22-49 (44.9%) from the floor including 7-15 (46.7%) on threes. Oklahoma also made 18-21 free throws while WVU only took eight free throws.

West Virginia held advantages in turnovers (19-11), points off turnovers (21-15) and second-chance points (23). The team’s rebounding number were similar, Oklahoma with 42, WVU with 41, however, 21 of WVU’s rebounds were offensive, coming on 52 missed shots.

West Virginia will get to return home for their next game but it will be a rematch against the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas defeated the Mountaineers 60-53 in Lawrance in the Big 12 opener on Jan. 4. Tip-off from the WVU Coliseum Wednesday will be at 7 p.m.