West Virginia Routs Oklahoma State Monday Night at the WVU Coliseum

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Erik Stevenson scored 23 factors and Tre Mitchell added a season-high 22 to steer West Virginia to an 85-67 victory over Oklahoma State Monday evening at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Stevenson and Mitchell had been each 8-of-15 from the flooring, with Stevenson hitting 5-of-6 from behind the arc and Mitchell going 6-of-7 from the free throw line.
 
“We really needed tonight’s win,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins stated. “This gives us five (in Big 12 play) with another home game here and a couple on the road and then the conference tournament. Hopefully we can put ourselves in a much better position.”
 
The Mountaineers held Oklahoma State with out a subject objective throughout an eight-minute stretch in the first half to construct a 20-point lead. Tyreek Smith’s putback basket with 11:39 left and John-Michael Wright’s driving layup with 3:37 remaining had been the solely baskets for the Cowboys throughout that stretch.
 
Meanwhile, West Virginia outscored Oklahoma State 18-1 over that very same span of time to construct its result in 36-16 on Kobe Johnson’s brief jumper.
 
The Mountaineers’ largest lead was 23 factors, 81-58, with 4:39 remaining.
 
Oklahoma State (16-12, 7-8) by no means led.
 
“That’s a talented team,” Huggins stated of Oklahoma State. “Their athleticism scared me to death coming into this game. We had to find a way to stay in front of them.”
 
Kedrian Johnson tallied 12 factors for the Mountaineers, which snapped their three-game dropping streak to enhance to 16-12 general and 5-10 in Big 12 play.
 
Oklahoma State, which misplaced 100-75 at TCU two nights in the past, has now dropped three straight after a current five-game profitable streak.
 
WVU shot 43.9% general and 41.2% from 3, whereas OSU shot 38.5% general and solely 10.5% from 3. The Cowboys missed 17 of their 19 shot makes an attempt from behind the arc.
 
“You want to keep them from making 3s, they add up faster than 2s,” Huggins stated. “I think pushing up on the ball screen with this team is the best way to go.”
 
West Virginia outscored Oklahoma State 28 to 4 in factors off turnovers and 22 to 11 in second-chance factors on the energy of 17 offensive rebounds. WVU’s inside gamers, which tallied a mixed 15 factors in Saturday afternoon’s loss to Texas Tech, scored 45 tonight.
 
The Cowboys dedicated 18 turnovers.
 
“I thought we played really hard,” Huggins stated. “Defensively, this is as well as we’ve played all year.”
 
The introduced crowd for tonight’s sport was 11,874, boosting WVU’s season common to 11,872 with one common season contest left. It’s going to be the eighth time in the final 9 years that West Virginia will common greater than 10,000 followers per sport. The solely yr it did not was 2021 when COVID-19 restrictions considerably lowered capability for video games at the Coliseum.
 
Tonight’s victory improves West Virginia’s NCAA Tournament hopes with 4 common season video games and the Big 12 Tournament remaining. The Cowboys got here into tonight’s sport with an NCAA NET rating of 37, which supplies WVU one other Quad 2 win. Prior to tonight’s sport, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had West Virginia in his “Last Four In” class.
 
The Mountaineers have 5 Quad 1 and 4 Quad 2 victories with three Quad 1 contests remaining at No. 6 Kansas on Saturday, at No. 15 Iowa State on Monday evening and at dwelling towards No. 20 Kansas State to conclude the common season. 
 
Earlier at the moment, the Kansas State sport was introduced a sellout.
 
“We had a long talk before yesterday about, ‘How do you want to go out? Do you want to go out playing in the NCAA Tournament, advancing and representing your state, or do you want to continue to give games away at the end and not go anywhere and feel miserable?'” Huggins stated. 
 
Saturday’s Kansas sport will tip off at 4 p.m. and shall be televised nationally on ESPN.