The turning point in Saturday's top 10 showdown between West Virginia and Oklahoma was an ill-advised shot at a key juncture of the second half.
The crowd at the WVU Coliseum was roaring after the Mountaineers reeled off nine straight points to tie the game at 52 and came up with a key defensive stop. That's when reserve guard Tarik Phillip halted all that momentum when he badly missed a rushed pull-up 3-pointer with 22 seconds on the shot clock, the sort of attempt not even a lethal shooter should never take under the circumstances.
Phillip was West Virginia's leading scorer on Saturday with 17 points, but his missed 3-pointer turned out to be his team's last chance to take the lead the rest of the game. Oklahoma reeled off a 9-0 run of its own immediately after that possession, providing the Sooners the cushion they needed to close out a critical 76-62 road victory.
Oklahoma's win ended the third-ranked Sooners' first real slump of the season. They have fallen to the fringes of the Big 12 title race after dropping three of their last four games, surprising losses at Kansas State, and Texas Tech sandwiched around a narrow home loss to first-place Kansas.
At 21-5 overall but just 9-5 in the Big 12, Oklahoma is still squarely in the mix for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament but will need a lot of help to even earn a share of the Big 12 title. Kansas will hold a two-game lead on the Sooners if it wins today at Kansas State and West Virginia remains alone in second place despite Saturday's loss.
While the wasted possession by Philip was a momentum changer on Saturday, credit Oklahoma for seizing the opportunity. Ryan Spangler drew an over-the-back foul and sank two free throws. Dinjiyl Walker buried a 3-pointer when his man was slow to close out. Khadeem Lattin split a pair of free throws. And Buddy Hield capped the run by hitting a transition 3-pointer after West Virginia inexplicably lost track of him.
Hield led Oklahoma with 29 points on 9-for-21 shooting, a strong performance that further cemented him as the favorite to win national player of the year. The Sooners also did an excellent job protecting the ball against the West Virginia pressure, turning it over just eight times.
West Virginia will argue it should be nine Oklahoma turnovers because the referees appeared to miss a potential 10-second violation in the closing minutes when the Mountaineers were still within two scores. It may not have made a difference, but it certainly would have given West Virginia a glimmer of hope.
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