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OU basketball vs. West Virginia: Four takeaways from Sooners' win against Mountaineers
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- OU basketball vs. West Virginia: Four takeaways from Sooners' win against Mountaineers
NORMAN — Jalon Moore stole the ball and got up the court quickly.
Moore, OU's junior forward, left one defender spinning near midcourt thanks to a slow-then-go move.
Instead of going up at the basket, Moore delivered a pump-fake, shaking another West Virginia defender, then shoveled to Luke Northweather to complete the bucket.
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Moore's example was one of plenty Wednesday where the 15th-ranked Sooners turned defense into offense.
After a pair of disappointing defensive performances in back-to-back losses, OU responded, beating the Mountaineers 77-63 at Lloyd Noble Center .
"He got deflections. He got rebounds. He got a big offensive rebound," Sooners coach Porter Moser said. "He's just all over. He's a weapon against the zone. We threw that lob against them. So just his energy was contagious and I thought he did a nice job with that. Really helped us."
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Oklahoma Sooners forward Jalon Moore (14) dunks the ball on West Virginia Mountaineers forward Patrick Suemnick (24) during a college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.
The Sooners forced just nine turnovers during their two-game losing streak, including just two in Saturday's loss at Kansas .
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By halftime Wednesday, the Sooners had topped that mark, forcing 10 West Virginia turnovers in the first half.
That included five during a four-minute stretch late in the first half during a 17-7 OU run to close the half.
Eight of the Sooners' points in the run came off West Virginia turnovers.
"It was good to see us more aggressive on defense forcing 16 turnovers," Moser said.
Otega Oweh finished with 12 points, a career-high 10 rebounds and five steals.
The Sooners shot 63.6% from the floor in the second half and finished at 49%. Moore was 7 of 11 from the field.
Here are three other takeaways from the Sooners' victory:
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Sooners dominate on the glass
While the Sooners were ahead at halftime, the lead wasn't exactly comfortable.
OU quickly changed that.
Less than five minutes into the second half, the Sooners had built a double-digit lead.
A big piece of that was OU's success on the glass.
After a relatively tight rebounding battle in the first half — 16-13 Sooners — OU dominated out of the gates in the second half, outrebounding West Virginia 16-3 to start the half to put the game in hand.
West Virginia came into the game last in the Big 12 in rebounding margin at -0.9 — the only conference team with a rebounding deficit — while OU came in fourth in rebounding margin at +7.3.
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The Sooners finished with a 33-19 advantage on the glass — 10 of them offensive boards, outscoring the Mountaineers 11-6 on second-chance points.
"We came out ready," Moore said. "I mean, pure physicality, energy — we were, I mean, like Coach (Moser) says, 'rebounding is the admission ticket to transition.' So, we really take that to heart. Like, we're going to go get the boards. It's important."
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Oklahoma Sooners guard Rivaldo Soares (5) puts up a shot as West Virginia Mountaineers forward Akok Akok (13) and forward Quinn Slazinski (11) defend during a college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.
Rivaldo Soares takes over second half
After back-to-back 13-point games in mid-December, Rivaldo Soares had been fairly quiet when it came to scoring over the last six games going into Wednesday.
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Soares was quiet again in the first half against the Mountaineers, scoring only on a pair of free throws.
But in the second half, Soares came alive, scoring 11 points, including hitting a pair of 3-pointers, to help the Sooners stretch their lead.
Soares had been averaging 3.0 points per game over the previous six games after averaging 7.7 in the first 10.
"At this point of the season, every team has it — people start getting hurt, and you got to have some type of depth in order to be good," Soares said. "The teams that don't really have a lot of depth tend to struggle toward the end of the season. With the second shift, we come in and uplift our guys, give them a break, go as hard as we can, and then they give us a break."
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Soares wasn't the only one who thrived in the second half.
After going 0 for 8 from the field in the first half, Otega Oweh was 5 for 8 with 12 points in the second half.
"Just told him to keep going strong," Moser said. "Get to that foul line. But you got to keep defending. You gotta be a relentless defender. Five steals, 10 rebounds — he was getting it done on that end."
Oklahoma Sooners guard Otega Oweh (3) goes to the basket beside West Virginia Mountaineers forward Patrick Suemnick (24) during a college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Okla., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024.
Sooners struggle to maintain the ball
While Moser was happy his team forced turnovers, he was equally as upset — or more — at his team's season-high 19 giveaways.
"The first thing I looked at," Moser said. "We had four (turnovers) before the first media (timeout). Just a little jumpy. Little soft with the ball. We've got to be tougher."
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West Virginia outscored the Sooners 17-16 off turnovers.
Moser circled back to the topic later.
"We've just got to be stronger with the ball, and we're gonna," Moser said. "We've going to. We got to clear that up because there's so many of these close-possession games as you see every night in this league that you gotta get that number to manageable."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma basketball beats West Virginia, snaps two-game losing streak
