This is what the Mountaineers can do on a good night. We were wondering what the ceiling is for this team, and.... good lord, that was impressive.
This game had a furious start with both teams putting up the points out of the gate. The true feel was that the Mountaineers had complete control, but couldn't always convert that into offensive production even with the Sooners growing increasingly frustrated. At one point, OU guard Frank Brooks intentionally fouls Jevon Carter, but were still only down five with three minutes to go in the half. However, the Mountaineers came out of that last media timeout both forcing turnovers and making those high percentage shots and layups. Yes, you read that right. The reason why West Virginia had both of those available was the priority of ball movement that Huggins had put on this game. It paid dividends improving the field goal percentage and overall confidence of the squad.
Second half had an odd feel to it coming out. Lon Kruger definitely talked to the refs about certain calls and WVU got four fouls in the first 90 seconds. After that, though, it got ugly. The Mountaineers start nailing threes, forcing even more turnovers, and stretch the lead to 20. West Virginia never looked back with Jevon Carter hitting three open 3s in a row. Little things like that lead to the student section just giving it to OU forward Ryan Spangler.
#WVU students pleading for Spangler to be put back in the game. https://t.co/bpDwWQpDnp
— Keenan Cummings (@rivalskeenan) January 14, 2015
Everything about this was glorious. Only thing that could have made it better was if it was against Pitt. Jevon Carter ends up with 18 points and Devin Williams ends the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Two big things to take away from this: 1) WVU did not lose to Iowa State twice. Really showed character coming out and giving it to OU. 2) If you catch the Mountaineers on a night they can shoot, good luck.
West Virginia travels to Austin to play the #20 Texas Longhorns Saturday night at 6:15PM ET on ESPN/WatchESPN.