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MORGANTOWN -- Just when West Virginia thought that everything bad that could happen to it on the road in the Big 12 had already happened, capped off by a fifth straight conference loss by a point, 77-76, at Oklahoma, another problem cropped up.
As play-by-play announcer Tony Caridi was wrapping up Huggins’ postgame show, he mentioned that they’d be heading for the plane to fly home as soon as they got off the air.
“No,” said Huggins, “We’re going back to the hotel. The plane broke down.”
It sort of left both of them with that “So how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” feeling.
This was a game the Mountaineers could have won, maybe even should have won. They played better than they had been, were in position to win despite missing half of their free throws, once again having to list fixing that on their ever-growing to-do list.
It leaves you to wonder if they ever are going to win a Big 12 road game. They went all of last season without a road win in the conference and now have dropped three more for 12 straight.
This was a tense, hard-fought battle that Oklahoma had control of virtually all the way. The Sooners managed to edge off to a 31-20 halftime lead, a lead that was that narrow only because Joe Toussaint came off the bench and scored 10 first-half points in just eight minutes of play.
Then, in the second half, with Toussaint sitting until there were only nine minutes left in the game, Oklahoma built a nine-point advantage with the home crowd urging it on.
It was looking like more of the same, but Toussaint eventually was put back in, and the Mountaineers came to life with Tre Mitchell showing the way.
It was a strong second half for the Mountaineers, who held Oklahoma without a field goal for the final 6:14 of the game and who made 5 of their last 7 shots from the field. But while they were unable to score from the floor down the stretch, the Sooners made 11 free throws as they showed why they are the best free-throw shooting team in the conference.
While the Sooners could not hit a basket, WVU shot 64% from the floor in the second half. But the shot the Mountaineers had to have, they screwed up, and the shot they didn’t need at all went in.
Down two points with 27 seconds left, Huggins called time out and drew up a play for Erik Stevenson.
Considering the problems Stevenson has had of late and the fact that he had spent two days in the hospital this week with a respiratory problem, he didn’t exactly seem the most likely candidate to go for the game-winning shot … but, hey, that’s what was called.
“I asked Erik where he wanted to turn coming off the picket fence (screen), and he said he wanted to turn that way. That was not probably what we ought to have done.”
Stevenson rushed the ball up the court and took an off-balance, what looked like a desperation shot, even though there was plenty of time on the clock.
“It was a forced shot,” Huggins said. “We didn’t need a forced shot. The deal was if he didn’t have a good shot to penetrate and pitch it.”
How bad was the shot?
Former coach Tim Welch, doing color commentary on the broadcast, blurted out: “Horrible decision by Erik. That’s a disaster.”
And it was as Oklahoma got the rebound and made two free throws to stretch the lead to four.
WVU came up the court and got the ball to Seth Wilson, but the 3 he buried at the buzzer added only to his point total, not WVU’s win total.
WVU was led in scoring by Tre Mitchell with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting while Toussaint finished with 14 on 6 of 9 from the floor. Kedrian Johnson had 13 and Emmitt Matthews Jr. 11.
“We’re getting closer,” Huggins said, indicating a turnaround was coming.
They don’t have time to wait any longer for it.