Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger said it best: it was a tale of two halves.
The Sooners returned to action on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 11 days and had their hands full with No. 9 West Virginia. After a fantastic defensive first half set them up with an 18-point halftime advantage, the Mountaineers came storming back in the second half to tie things up on multiple occasions and create a game that went down to the wire.
Oklahoma was led by Umoja Gibson, who had his breakout game with the Sooners going for 29 points on eight made three-pointers. His offensive play is really what kept them hanging in it when West Virginia went on their big run to close the gap in the second half.
“He really was great,” Kruger said. “He made big shots, needed everyone of them obviously in the second half, down the stretch there. Couple big threes when the game was tied. He stepped up there. he was great.”
Gibson came through on a night when Oklahoma desperately needed him, with the two leaders of the team Austin Reaves and Brady Manek both turning in less than stellar performances. Reaves and Manek went a combined 8/23 from the field for just 20 total points. Managing to win this game without those two guys offering their best is a true testament to the Sooners’ depth.
“We’ve had guys step up,” Kruger said. “Off the bench tonight obviously, you know, Moj (Umoja Gibson), and Jalen (Hill), and Kur (Kuath) were fantastic.”
While Gibson was inarguably the player of the game, the shot of the game came out of the hands of Manek who hit a mammoth three-pointer off an assist by Gibson with under two minutes to go to extend Oklahoma’s lead out to 68-62. They were really in the drivers seat from there on.
“I always keep shooting it whether I’m down or not,” Manek said. “That was a big play by Mo (Gibson). Kind of got stuck in the offense, and came off and had a good pick and pop action and he was hot so they stuck with him and left me wide open and he got me the ball. It was a really good play on his part.”
The win comes at an extremely key time for Oklahoma after the loss to Texas Tech in their last game and before road trips to face two straight top five opponents in Baylor and Kansas in the next week. The Sooners needed this one from both a confidence standpoint as well as simply avoiding a potentially large hole in the ever competitive Big 12 standings.
“Yeah, that was a big one,” Manek said. “We showed tonight against West Virginia that we’re physical, we can make shots, we can play defense. We had a really good first half defensively. I think it shows a lot.”
Oklahoma now sits 6-2 on the season and 2-1 in Big 12 play before a very difficult week of basketball ahead. The Sooners will head to Waco to face No. 2 Baylor on Wednesday before battling No. 3 Kansas in Lawrence next Saturday.
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