College Basketball

Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Shock No. 7 West Virginia With Stunning Comeback

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 2:11 a.m. ET

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Fansided, Chip Rouse/FanSided via Stormin in Norman

All season long, the men’s Oklahoma basketball team has been in the lead or very close to it halfway through the second half, but in at least seven of the Sooners’ nine losses they haven’t been able to finish out what they started.

On Wednesday night at West Virginia, the young Oklahoma squad was finally able to get over the hump and stay strong to the very end. That resilience paid off with an 89-87 overtime victory over the seventh-ranked Mountaineers, giving the Sooners back-to-back wins in Big 12 action after suffering four consecutive losses to begin conference play.

The return to action of senior guard Jordan Woodard has been the common denominator in the Sooner turnaround in the past two games. Woodard led OU with 20 points, the final two of which came on a lay-up with just four seconds remaining in overtime to secure the victory at WVU Coliseum. Woodard also hit a jump shot with 3.1 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 77.

Just 10 minutes earlier, the game appeared to be headed toward a blowout West Virginia win. The Mountaineers went on a 14-0 run midway through the second half to take a 66-51 lead with just under nine minutes to go. The Sooners responded, however, with an 18-3 run of their own to erase the deficit and get right back in the game

As was the case in Oklahoma’s win over Texas Tech last weekend, Woodard scored 18 of his points in the second half. In his two games back after a four-game absence, the senior Oklahoma floor leader and one of just two returning starters from last season’s Final Four team has averaged 23.5 points, 5.5 rebounds four assists and 3.5 steals.

There is little question that not having Woodard in the lineup was a major factor in Oklahoma’s seven-game losing skid in which the Sooner record went from 6-2 to 6-9 in a matter of a month’s time.

“This is a terrific effort,” said OU coach Lon Kruger in his postgame press conference. “Our guys fought hard, held their own on the boards and battled the great pressure that West Virginia puts on.

“Jordan (Woodard) was outstanding all night long, and he got a lot of help from a lot of other people. Good road win over a very good West Virginia team.”

Here are some of the important takeaways from what Sooner fans are hopeful will be a season-changing victory for this young, but talented Oklahoma team.

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