Bryce Thompson scored 15 points and Oklahoma State survived blowing a 13-point second half lead to topple West Virginia 67-60 in Stillwater, Okla., on Monday night.
Avery Anderson added 13 points before fouling out shortly after his layup gave the Cowboys (9-5, 1-1 Big 12 Conference) a 62-58 edge with 1:52 left. John-Michael Wright kicked in 11 points and Kalib Boone chipped in 10.
Erik Stevenson scored a game-high 17 points for the Mountaineers (10-4, 0-2), but played only 26 minutes due to foul trouble and eventually was disqualified. Tre Mitchell added 16 points and seven rebounds, but it wasn’t enough for West Virginia.
The visitors hit just 19 of 52 shots from the field and struggled again at the foul line, making only 17 of 28 free throws. The Mountaineers missed three of their last four shots at the charity stripe, including a pair by Kedrian Johnson with 1:35 left with the team trailing by four.
West Virginia trailed 37-24 early in the second half before rallying for a 57-54 lead on a Seth Wilson jumper with 5:25 left. But Oklahoma State went on a 9-1 run over the next 4:06, with Wright capping it with a foul shot that made the margin 63-58 at the 1:19 mark.
West Virginia played most of the first half like a team enduring a hangover from a tough overtime loss at Kansas State on Saturday night in which it blew an early 15-3 lead and missed 18 of its 38 foul shots.
The Mountaineers had just four points at the under-12 TV timeout and didn’t reach double figures until a free throw by Jimmy Bell Jr. at the 8:06 mark of the first half. Luckily for them, Oklahoma State wasn’t able to land a real knockout punch.
The Cowboys never led by more than nine points, even though they canned nearly 50 percent of their shots, because they also coughed it up nine times. Still, they took a 31-22 lead to the locker room after Thompson stuck a 3 and Quion Williams hit a transition layup in the last 90 seconds.
–Field Level Media
