Sooners take on Mountaineers in Big 12 brawl
Mar 5, 2014 - 3:49 PM Norman, OK (SportsNetwork.com) - The West Virginia Mountaineers haven't won back-to-back games since the beginning of February, but after a blowout win over TCU on Saturday, the Mountaineers will try to string a pair together as they travel to face the No. 23 Oklahoma Sooners in a Big 12 Conference clash at the Lloyd Noble Center.West Virginia had dropped three consecutive games prior to its 81-59 victory over TCU this past weekend. At 8-8 in the conference and with two games remaining on the regular-season schedule, the Mountaineers will try to make up some ground against two ranked opponents - Oklahoma and then at home against Kansas.
Oklahoma is coming off a 77-65 victory over then-No. 23 Texas this past Saturday. The Sooners have won three of their last four games, and own a 10-6 record in the Big 12 this season. They have matchups against WVU and at TCU scheduled to end the regular season.
The Sooners own a slim 4-2 lead in the brief all-time series with West Virginia. The Mountaineers were the ones that got the better of Oklahoma earlier this season in Morgantown, as they defeated the Sooners, 91-86, in overtime.
West Virginia held a slim 39-36 lead at the end of the first half against TCU Saturday, but the second half is when the Mountaineers opened things up and ran away with the lead and the victory. Eron Harris netted 18 points to pace WVU, while Juwan Staten chipped in 17 with a team-high five assists, and Nathan Adrian scored 14 with six rebounds. Devin Williams tallied a double- double with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. The Mountaineers shot 42.9 percent from the field in the contest, and held TCU to just 39.2 percent shooting in the game.
Staten and Harris have been two dominant forces for West Virginia this season, each averaging 18 ppg. Staten is connecting on 49.5 percent of his field-goal attempts on the year, and has dished out a team-leading 172 assists with 36 steals. Harris is shooting a team-best 85.5 percent from the free-throw line. Terry Henderson rounds out the double-digit scorers for West Virginia, netting 12.1 ppg. Williams tops the Mountaineers in rebounding with a 7.0 rpg clip.
Oklahoma played a consistent game from start to finish against Texas, leading the Longhorns by seven points at the end of the first half and building that advantage up to 12 by the end of the contest. Isaiah Cousins led all scorers in the game with 24 points for Oklahoma, adding three steals to his stat line. Buddy Hield chipped in 17 points and eight rebounds to the cause, while Ryan Spangler grabbed a team-high 10 boards in the win.
Hield leads a group of Oklahoma players averaging a double-digit point total this season with 16.7 ppg. Cameron Clark is close behind Hield's total at 15 ppg, while three other Sooners players average just over 10 ppg, including Cousins (10.9 ppg) and Spangler (10.1 ppg). Spangler tops the squad with 9.6 rpg and 27 blocked shots on the year, and Jordan Woodard is the team's top assists man, dishing out 134 helpers.
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