“It’s really in a lot of ways good to see a guy put that much time in and work so hard and start to be successful”. Paige hurt his right ankle early in the loss to Texas and did not score.
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Iowa State leads the Big 12 and sits 14th nationally in scoring offense averaging 83 points per game. The eight point West Virginia lead turned into a two point Cyclone lead not even three minutes into the half.
Buddy Hield topped off a 9-0 run following a Paige layup that tied it up at 52, pushing the Sooners ahead 61-52 and keeping them within striking distance of the Big 12 regular season title. They shot 49.3% from the field and 39.1% from three. Phillip picked up the slack from deep, making 6-of-8 on 3s, and dishing out six assists. “This guy goes down, that guy goes down and all of a sudden you look at what was a strength has become a weakness, particularly the way we have to play”.
“If they feel sorry for themselves, I’ve got the wrong guys”, Huggins said. “We got the last punch”.
West Virginia is now alone in second place in the Big 12 at 10-5, while Iowa State drops to 8-7.
“We got dominated on Saturday, so I think we had some motivation to rebound it better”, Huggins said.
“The thing right now is that we’re losing bodies”.
Nader led six Cyclones in double figures with 23 points. Matt Thomas scored 14, while point guard Monte Morris and Donte Burton added 13 each.
Bobby Huggins had this West Virginia Mountaineers team in solid position to get a top 2 or 3 seed for the NCAA Tournament, but back to back losses will more than likely have them far enough down in the rankings to keep them out of those slots. Then teammate Isaiah Cousins hit another 3-pointer that gave Oklahoma a 64-57 lead with 2:39 left, once WVU had cut the lead to four points.
Holton won possession on a jump ball on the other end.
Oklahoma also held a 48-37 rebounding advantage and snagged 18 offensive rebounds.
Nader and Phillip exchanged threes and McKay slammed a dunk in transition with 2:43 left to bring Iowa State within 89-82.
The Mountaineers are now 3-5 all-time against Iowa State.
Both Paige and Phillip came off the bench for West Virginia, so perhaps they were capitalizing on Iowa State’s fatigue. Iowa State just got manhandled down low, and if they run into any huge frontcourts in March, they will be in trouble.
Morris, after committing only two turnovers in five previous games against Wes Virginia, had three in the opening half.
The Mountaineers let an 11-point first-half lead slip away early in the second half before Paige and Phillip carried them down the stretch.
The referees called 35 fouls Monday night, with 21 of them attached to Iowa State. Nine of WVU’s 10 players made a basket. “So now we’re just playing for seeding and just stay positive”.
The Cyclones made 15 of 26 shots and 6 of 10 3-point attempts but fell victim to WVU’s substance and style.
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The Mountaineers’ reserves did all the damage in a 12-0 run that built a 20-14 lead, and by intermission the edge in bench scoring was 30-4. Phillip had the ball in the final few seconds of the first half and shot a 3/4 court heave – the only problem was there were still five seconds on the clock.
