Tanner Groves had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Oklahoma to a 72-59 win over West Virginia on Tuesday in Norman, Okla.
Groves was dominant in the second half, especially in the closing minutes, as the Sooners put the game away with an 18-9 run after the Mountaineers pulled within four with six minutes left.
Groves scored 15 in the second half, including eight in that closing stretch. The Eastern Washington transfer has back-to-back double-doubles after not recording one during his first 27 games of the season.
Jordan Goldwire added 16 points — 12 in the second half — for the Sooners (16-14, 6-11 Big 12), who have won back-to-back games for the first time in two months.
The Mountaineers (14-16, 3-14) have lost seven consecutive games for the second time this season. Malik Curry led the Mountaineers with 17 points, going 6 of 9 from the field in the second half and scoring West Virginia’s final nine points.
Oklahoma jumped out to a big lead early, but West Virginia stayed close, twice making it a one-possession game in the second half. After shooting just 22.2 percent in the first half, the Mountaineers were 15 of 25 from the floor in the second half.
But the Sooners were even better, shooting 62.5 percent after the break to put the game away.
Oklahoma scored 23 points off 15 West Virginia turnovers.
While Oklahoma got off to a hot start offensively, the Mountaineers were far from hot for much of the half.
After Curry’s layup put West Virginia up 10-6 just more than five minutes into the game, the Mountaineers went more than 10 minutes before hitting another shot.
West Virginia missed 17 consecutive shots during the stretch, a 22-4 run for the Sooners.
But the Mountaineers scored the final 10 points of the half to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 28-24 at the break.
The Sooners missed their final five shots of the half, four from beyond the 3-point line.
Oklahoma turned the ball over three times during West Virginia’s closing run, finishing with 10 turnovers in the first.
–Field Level Media