Oklahoma basketball remains hot with only three weeks left of the regular season after taking down No. 14 ranked West Virginia in double overtime earlier this week. Winning the last seven out of eight games, four of those wins against teams ranked in the national top 20, the Sooner basketball team now sits among the nation’s best in the top ten at No. 9.
In the game against West Virginia this past week, Oklahoma showed it deserves to be placed among the best of the best, playing in arguably one of the most competitive conferences this season with six out of the 10 teams in the Big 12 being ranked in the top 15.
Though the Sooners managed to take down the Mountaineers, it was no easy feat. Going into halftime it looked like Oklahoma would be going into the half with a slight advantage. However, after a last-minute foul, the teams went into the locker room at the half with a tied game of 31-31.
Going into the second half the key to an Oklahoma win was star point guard Austin Reaves. Reaves only put up six points by the half but finished double overtime with 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. More notably, Reaves hit the game-winning jumper in the last 25 seconds of the game to secure the Sooners’ dub over West Virginia 91-90. Because of Reaves’ outstanding performance in the game, he also earned himself the Big 12 player of the week award.
Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger expressed his excitement about Reaves’ performance in the game during his postgame interview.
“It was outstanding, big-time plays at critical times in the ball game. Kind of trading leads there in overtime and Austin was terrific, making plays off the dribble, getting to the free throw line, driving and kicking for others, got a couple of big rebounds. Huge game for Austin.”
Along with Kruger’s enthusiasm for Reaves’ performance, the Sooner head coach also gave a lot of credit to the West Virginia basketball team:
“Obviously it was a heck of a ball game, there wasn’t much margin either way throughout and the guys on both teams were fighting like crazy and making big-time plays, big-time stops. We had a little trouble getting the rebound there at part of the game in overtime but overall just really proud of our guys, happy for our guys, great deal of respect for west Virginia. Now we’ve got a couple of days and then a line up against another really good team in Texas.”
Though Reaves seemed to be the player of the game, Sooner forward Brady Manek is back in full force on the court and contributed last night as well putting up 11 points, nine rebounds and two assists. After putting up a 3-pointer in the last 15 minutes of the game, Manek set a personal record marking the 216th 3-pointer of his career and passed Tim Heskett for fifth place in most career 3-pointers.
Coming off the exhilarating win, Oklahoma basketball was expected to take on the Texas at home, but due to the winter storms currently taking place in both Oklahoma and Texas, the game has been postponed and moved to Thursday, Feb. 18.
