WVU makes big lead stand up vs. Sooners this time

Arielle Roberson draws a foul driving against Oklahoma during West Virginia’s 63-55 win Wednesday night.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bria Holmes scored 14 points and Arielle Roberson grabbed 14 rebounds as West Virginia led wire-to-wire in beating No. 20 Oklahoma 63-55 on Wednesday night despite some late drama.

Tynice Martin added 12 points, Chania Ray scored 11 and Teana Muldrow finished with 10 after going scoreless in the first half for the Mountaineers (20-7, 9-5), who had been 0-5 against ranked teams this season. They built a 16-point lead before Oklahoma (17-8, 8-6) clawed back to within 55-51 late in the fourth quarter.

That storyline looked familiar: OU overcame a 16-point deficit to beat West Virginia 57-54 in Norman last month.

This time the Mountaineers held on, despite each team committing 19 turnovers, and secured their 10th 20-win season under coach Mike Carey.

“It wasn’t really a pretty game, but I would rather win ugly than lose pretty,” Carey said. “I thought we played hard. We just turned the ball over a little bit too much and didn’t finish some shots. Overall, I’m very pleased. We needed that win bad against a ranked team.”

The Sooners ultimately were undone by 0-of-17 shooting from 3-point range—their first game without a 3 this season.

“I don’t know how a Division 1 team is 0-of-17 for 3s,” said Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale. “I really don’t know how that happens. It’s really a comedy of errors. Gioya (Carter) had one that went in and came right back out. Shaya (Kellogg) hit the rim on one, but the rest of them weren’t even close.”

Peyton Little paced Oklahoma with 14 points while T’ona Edwards scored 11 and Carter added 10. The Sooners entered the game ranked next-to-last among Big 12 teams in 3-point accuracy (29.8 percent).

“We got out on them, but they missed some wide-open ones too,” Carey said. “For the most part, we got out on them

when we switched, but there were some we left open.”

WVU shot 5-of-11 on 3s and led the rebounding 44-39.

Roberson’s big night on the boards wasn’t her only contribution. She added nine points, five steals and three blocks.

Her free throw put the Mountaineers up 58-53 and she fought to grab the rebound upon missing her second attempt. Sent back to the foul line, the senior made two free throws to ice it.

WVU led 26-19 at the half and used a 10-0 run to pull ahead 40-24 with 3:30 left in the third quarter.

“(Oklahoma) went in that 1-3-1 and that’s what turned us around,” Carey said. “I give Oklahoma credit. They kept battling and got back into the game.”

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