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When you're one of the top teams in the country, you should take care of business on the road against undermanned teams. West Virginia (22-7, 11-5) did just that on Saturday, defeating Oklahoma State (12-17, 3-13) 70-56 in Stillwater.
Today's game was a great example of the depth and balance of the Mountaineers. Ten players scored, with six of them scoring between five and seven points. Both the Mountaineer bench and starters contributed 35 points.
Despite Oklahoma State's hot shooting from three (6-10 and 4-4 from Tavarius Shine), West Virginia led at the half 33-29. The Cowboys had a 14-0 run that turned a 16-10 Mountaineer lead into a 24-16 deficit. #PressVirginia turned up the pressure to end the half and took a four point lead into the break.
West Virginia started the second half on an 11-2 run and mostly cruised the rest of the way for the 14 point victory.
Jaysean Paige again led the Mountaineers in scoring, dropping 17 on 8-18 shooting. Devin Williams dominated the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds to go with his 13 points.
Joe Burton led Oklahoma State with 16 off the bench. Tavarius Shine added 12, all in the first half. Full boxscore here.
WVU attacked the basket all game and went 27-37 from the line. They shot 36.5% from the field and 35.7% from three. They outrebounded the Cowboys 42-25 and had nearly as many offensive rebounds (19) as Oklahoma State had defensive rebounds (20).
On to the notes:
- Oklahoma State was without star guard Jawun Evans, who is out for the season with a shoulder injury.
- The Mountaineers are now a full game ahead of Oklahoma and Texas for second place in the conference.
- West Virginia now leads the all-time series against Oklahoma State 5-4 and have won four straight.
- As you can tell from the headline picture, there were plenty of good seats available in Stillwater this evening.
Wednesday night will be Senior Night for seniors Jonathan Holton and Jaysean Paige when the Mountaineers host Texas Tech. WVU defeated Tech 80-76 earlier in the season in Lubbock. The Red Raiders have been playing solid basketball as of late and are currently 8-8 in conference and 18-10 overall. The game tips at 7:00 PM and will be televised on ESPNU and WatchESPN.