Bolden, Adrian help No. 13 West Virginia hold off Oklahoma
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Freshman guard James Bolden scored a career-high 17 points in 10 minutes and No. 13 West Virginia survived an off-shooting night to beat Oklahoma 61-50 on Wednesday.
West Virginia (19-5, 7-4 Big 12) won for the first time ever at Oklahoma (8-15, 2-9) in five attempts and avenged an overtime defeat at the hands of the Sooners, who won 89-87 in Morgantown on Jan. 18.
The Mountaineers won despite shooting a season-low 37 percent from the field. West Virginia used its frenetic press to force 23 turnovers, 11 more than the Sooners committed in the previous meeting, and limited the Sooners to 33.3 percent shooting.
Kameron McGusty scored 11 points for the Sooners, who were so frazzled on offense that they burned all four of their timeouts by the 8:10 mark of the second half. Oklahoma lost its sixth straight game since its win at West Virginia and posted a season low for points.
Bolden, whose previous career high was nine points vs. VMI on Dec. 10, kept West Virginia afloat in the first half by scoring 15 points and gave them a 27-25 halftime lead with a driving layup right before the buzzer.
Nathan Adrian took over in the second half for the Mountaineers, scoring eight of his 13 points. His putback with 7:12 left gave West Virginia its first double-digit lead of the game at 48-38 and Jevon Carter followed with a 3-pointer from the corner for the Mountaineers.
Seven straight points by the Sooners -- four by Khadeem Lattin -- pulled them within 51-45 with 5:15 left, but they came no closer as West Virginia outscored them 10-5 in the final 5 minutes.
Oklahoma jumped to an 11-2 lead in the first 4 minutes and led for all but a few seconds of the first half, despite going without a field goal for almost 8 minutes in one stretch.
BIG PICTURE:
West Virginia: Every team will have bad nights and the Mountaineers were fortunate to have survived one of theirs without taking a loss. They will have to play much better in upcoming games against Sunflower State foes Kansas State and Kansas.
Oklahoma: Once again -- as in an earlier loss to Kansas -- a young Oklahoma squad held tough for a half with a ranked Big 12 foe at home before fading down the stretch. The Sooners have been close in nearly every game during their six-game losing streak but haven't made winning plays in the final minutes.
UP NEXT:
West Virginia: The Mountaineers will host one of coach Bob Huggins' former teams, Kansas State, on Saturday before a trip to Lawrence, Kan., to face No. 3 Kansas next Monday.
Oklahoma: The Sooners' next three games are against teams that beat them in the final seconds of earlier games -- at Iowa State on Saturday, at home vs. Texas next Tuesday and at Oklahoma State on Feb. 18.
