WVU Basketball Knocked Off in Big 12 Tournament First Round by Oklahoma State

For the second game in a row, the West Virginia Mountaineers lost a heart-breaker at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. On Saturday, a short-handed OSU team defeated the Mountaineers in their regular-season finale and on Thursday morning, a healthy OSU team eliminated WVU in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 tournament, winning 72-69.

West Virginia held the lead at multiple points during the game but a scoring drought in the second half put the Mountaineers in too deep of a hole for them to climb out of. OSU’s Cade Cunningham and Isaac Likekele, who both missed Saturday’s game, combined for 27 points as the Cowboys advanced to the semifinal round on Friday.

In the first half, WVU sophomore Miles “Deuce” McBride scored a game-high 16 points, took three charges with two rebounds, two assists and three steals. In the final 20 seconds before halftime, McBride stole the ball away from the Cowboys twice, scoring on both and ending the half with a thunderous dunk that put WVU up 36-30.

West Virginia’s first-team All-Big 12 forward Derek Culver was limited in the first half dealing with a reported illness. The junior was doubled over trying to catch his breath at times in the half and was seen laying on the floor on the sidelines when not in the game.

Culver did not immediately come out of WVU’s locker room at the start of the second half, emerging a few minutes later with a wrap around his left elbow. ESPN’s cameras caught Culver on the bench mouthing to a teammate that he received some sort of injection during the break. After scoring just five points in the first half, Culver scored six in the first few seconds after entering the game in the second.

With Culver looking more like himself, West Virginia (18-9) was able to build a bit of a lead on the Cowboys as the second half got underway. The Mountaineers’ lead grew to eight points several times in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but Oklahoma State (19-7) was able to respond every time. The Cowboys re-took the lead, 51-50, on a 3-pointer by Cunningham with 10:12 left to play. Cunningham’s trey was part of a 21 to 3 run that put Oklahoma State up 62-52.

Trailing by 10 with less than six minutes to play, the Mountaineers finally starting hitting shot again. A tough moving shot by Sean McNeil and two contested 3-pointers from Taz Sherman brought the Mountaineers back to within three points, 65-62, less than two minutes from when they were trailing by double-digits.

WVU retook the lead, 69-68 with one minute left on another 3-pointer but the Cowboys immediately took the lead back on the other end. A pair of free throws put the Cowboys up 72-69 with 16.7 seconds to play. A Sherman 3-pointer was partially blocked on WVU’s last possession and McNeil was unable to get a last-second attempt off as time expired and the Cowboys won, 72-69.

McBride and Sherman led all scorers with 19 points each while Culver (11) and McNeil (10) also finished in double-digits. Culver finished with eight rebounds but as a team, the Mountaineers were out-rebounded 45 to 31.

Cunningham and Avery Anderson III led the Cowboys with 17 points apiece. Likekele and Bryce Williams both scored 10 points.

WVU’s time in the Big 12 tournament is over after just one game as the Mountaineers will now await selection Sunday and the start of the NCAA tournament.