West Virginia basketball’s 69-50 win over Oklahoma State on Saturday was a bit of a mixed bag for the program.
Yes, the Mountaineers walked away with the win, moving to 11-2 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play. And at times, they looked nearly unstoppable -- in the final 11:08 of the first half, for example, WVU outscored their opponent 36-13 while shooting 11-of-18 from the field and 7-of-11 from behind-the-arc and holding the Cowboys to just 5-of-16 shooting and 2-9 on three-point buckets. They held a 46-19 lead at the halftime break.
“That was probably about as good of 10-12 minutes as we've played all year. We were really good defensively and we were able to get a rebound and get out in transition,” WVU Head Coach Darian DeVries said.
But then in the second half, the Mountaineers were outscored 31-23 and managed to shoot just 9-of-25 from the field and 3-of-11 from long-range. WVU had a 6:22 stretch where they failed to score as Oklahoma State went on a 10-0 run, and they didn’t truly put away the Cowboys until the final minutes of play.
"The first four minutes, we kind of quit running, which was a big part of it. We were fatigued. Teams in this league are good, and they're going to make a run,” DeVries said.
Fatigue makes sense -- the Mountaineers had just a 10-deep bench to pull from, with only 8 players on the bench today that have averaged more than 6 minutes per game this season. One of those players in Amani Hansberry is coming off an injury -- the still-injured Tucker DeVries did not dress. Jayden Stone, who has been injured all season and not seen any action, warmed up for the second game in a row, but did not play either.
But in the end, the Mountaineers strong spurts between slow stints were enough, and the players available had just enough in the tank to secure a comfortable win. Senior Javon Small had a banner performance against his former program, scoring a game-high 24 points and adding 11 rebounds in a double-double. Freshman Johnathan Powell had another breakout performance, dropping 17 points on a career-best 5-of-7 from three-point range. Also of note to West Virginia fans was the performance by former Mountaineer Pat Suemnick with his new program -- he gave Oklahoma State just three points and three rebounds in 12 minutes.
The Mountaineers will be back home on Tuesday for a conference clash with Arizona -- the Mountaineers waltzed past the Wildcats 83-76 in an overtime victory in November at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament which did not count in the league standings.