West Virginia beats Oklahoma 89-82 in OT to claim College Basketball Crown
West Virginia claimed the College Basketball Crown by beating Oklahoma 89-82 in overtime inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Senior guard Honor Huff led West Virginia with 38 points, while forward Chance Moore had 19 points, forward Brenen Lorient had 15 points and guard Treysen Eaglestaff had 6 points.
The Mountaineers built an early 15-point first half lead, but the Sooners used a 21-2 run to retake the edge. From there West Virginia fell behind by 13 and then rallied to take the lead in the final minute but were unable to close things out sending it into overtime.
After trailing by six in the extra period, West Virginia would use a 9-0 run on three consecutive threes to move ahead and closed the game on a 13-0 run.
The Mountaineers got on the board first with a layup by Lorient after a steal on the other end and added a threes by Eaglestaff and Lorient to take an early 8-0 lead. The Sooners would then get on the board with a three of their own three minutes into the game.
Huff would then get in on the action hitting a pair of threes on consecutive trips to give West Virginia a 14-5 edge almost five minutes into the action. The Sooners could cut four off the deficit, but Thomas would hit on his own three to make it 17-9 in favor of the Mountaineers.
Huff would then hit his third, fourth and fifth threes of the first half to take a 26-11 lead with the Mountaineers hitting eight of their first ten from deep as a team. The Sooners would then end the run with four of their own to make it 26-15 with 9:38 remaining in the half.
Oklahoma would then use a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 28-22 forcing head coach Ross Hodge to take a timeout with 6:51 left before halftime. The Sooners would continue the run out of the timeout trimming the lead to just 28-27 after five more points.
The Mountaineers would finally end the run with a basket to push the edge back out to three, but the Sooners continued to charge and would tie the game at 30 after an and-one. And the run would continue to grow to 21-2 to seize a 36-30 edge.
West Virginia would trail 41-37 heading into the break.
Oklahoma would score the first four points of the second half to double their lead, but Eaglestaff would hit a three to cut the deficit down to 45-40. But the Sooners would continue their hot shooting pushing the lead quickly out to 52-42 with 16:18 left in the game.
Oklahoma pushed the lead out to 57-44 after another three-pointer and continued to shoot the ball at a blistering pace at 64-percent through the first 27-minutes of the game.
West Virginia then cut the deficit down to 62-56 out of the media timeout with 11 minutes to play. The Mountaineers continued to push with the score sitting at 64-60 with 7:28 left in the game as Moore was able to get to the rim and score.
The Mountaineers would get the score down to 67-64 with 5:17 remaining leading to a timeout by the Sooners. Out of the timeout, Oklahoma would stretch the lead back out to seven with under four left.
Huff would hit a three out of a timeout and then add a pair of free throws after a stop to make the score 71-69 with 2:38 left on the clock. Then after another stop Lorient would tie the game at 71.
The Sooners would come out of a timeout a nail a three to move back ahead 74-71, but Huff would answer on the other end to deadlock the game at 74. Then Huff would nail a pair of free throws to give West Virginia a 76-74 lead with 33.8 remaining in the game.
The Sooners would then score to tie things up giving West Virginia the basketball tied at 76 with 17.6 left but Huff’s last attempt was off sending the game to overtime.
Oklahoma would strike first in overtime with a pair of free throws to move ahead and then a turnover which led to a dunk put the Sooners ahead 80-76. The lead would grow to six with 3:18 left in the extra period, but a pair of three pointers could tie the game back up on consecutive possessions.
The Mountaineers would surge back ahead on the third consecutive three to take an 85-82 edge and after another stop two Huff free throws made the score 87-82.
Huff would add two more free throws to make it 89-82 with 37.4 left.
The Mountaineers wrapped up the first season under Hodge at 21-14 overall.
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