No. 15 West Virginia loses 71-52 at No. 21 Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Without its usual points off turnovers, West Virginia couldn't generate any offense.

Oklahoma sliced through the Mountaineers' vaunted press, Buddy Hield scored 21 points and the 21st-ranked Sooners defeated the 15th-ranked Mountaineers 71-52 on Tuesday night.

Oklahoma committed 22 turnovers in the first meeting, an 86-65 win for West Virginia on Jan. 13. This time, the Sooners committed just 13, leaving few opportunities for easy transition buckets.

Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said his team failed to do the usual things that mask its inability to score in the halfcourt. West Virginia shot just 34 percent in the rematch.

"We haven't made shots all year," he said. "You can compensate for it. You can rebound offensively. You can create turnovers. You can create points off turnovers. We haven't made shots all year."

Oklahoma, on the other hand, shot a season-high 61 percent from the field to win its third straight.

Hield, the Big 12's leading scorer, made 8 of 13 shots, including 5 of 7 3-pointers. Jordan Woodard had 12 points and Ryan Spangler and Isaiah Cousins each added 10 for the Sooners (15-7, 6-4 Big 12).

Juwan Staten had 15 points and nine rebounds and Gary Browne added 12 points for West Virginia (18-4, 6-3), which had won three straight.

Devin Williams, the conference's No. 2 rebounder and Big 12 leader in field goal percentage, was ill and did not play. He had 14 points and 11 rebounds in the first meeting.

Oklahoma led 14-11 before going on a 13-0 run to break open the game. West Virginia went scoreless for 5:33 during that stretch.

The Sooners led 38-24 at halftime after shooting 62 percent. They outscored West Virginia 20-4 in points off turnovers before the break.

West Virginia turned the tide early in the second half as its full-court press started to bother the Sooners. The Mountaineers went on an 8-0 run to cut Oklahoma's lead to 43-35.

Hield's 3-pointer gave the Sooners a 52-40 edge with just under 10 minutes remaining, and he hit another 3 with just over eight minutes to play that pushed the lead back to 14 points. The Sooners remained in control from there.

"They were very good," Huggins said. "They were very, very good. As I have said a thousand times and I continue to say, I'm just an old coach, so it's not like I'm going to outsmart a lot of people in this league. We have to execute and we didn't execute."

TIP-INS

West Virginia: Elijah Macon made his first career start in Williams' place and scored eight points in 16 minutes. ... West Virginia made just 2 of 13 3-pointers in the first half and 5 of 26 in the game. ... The Mountaineers, who entered the night as the nation's leader in steals per game (12.4) finished with seven.

Oklahoma: Spangler was chosen Big 12 Player of the Week for his efforts last week. ... This was Oklahoma's nation-leading 10th game against a Top 25 team this year. ... Oklahoma made just 11 of 22 free throws.

UP NEXT

West Virginia: Hosts Baylor on Saturday.

Oklahoma: At TCU on Saturday.

___

Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CliffBruntAP.