Oklahoma came within minutes of a postseason tournament championship Sunday afternoon but fell to West Virginia 89-82 in overtime in the College Basketball Crown title game at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
The Sooners led by six points in overtime and appeared in control before West Virginia surged late. After Oklahoma built an 82-76 advantage with 3:14 remaining, the Mountaineers responded with three straight 3-pointers and closed the game on a 13-0 run to secure the championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a game of runs, the Mountaineers had the last one,\u201d Toby Rowland said. \u201cA 13-run to finish the game and win it in overtime. Honor Huff was phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Virginia guard Honor Huff led all scorers with 38 points and eight 3-pointers, helping the Mountaineers capitalize on Oklahoma mistakes down the stretch. West Virginia also turned 14 Oklahoma turnovers into 26 points, a key factor in the outcome.<\/p>\n
The Sooners showed resilience throughout the game. Oklahoma trailed by 15 early after West Virginia opened hot from beyond the arc, with eight of its first nine baskets coming from 3-point range. But Oklahoma answered with a 25-4 run over nearly eight minutes to take a 36-30 lead and eventually a 41-37 halftime advantage.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma later built a seven-point lead late in regulation before West Virginia rallied. Tae Davis delivered a clutch driving layup with 12.6 seconds remaining to tie the game at 76 and force overtime.<\/p>\n
In the extra session, Nijel Pack and Davis helped Oklahoma take control early. Two Pack free throws, a Davis bucket in the paint, and a Pack runner off the glass pushed the Sooners ahead 82-76 before West Virginia\u2019s late surge.<\/p>\n
Pack led Oklahoma with 24 points and seven assists while committing just one turnover. The senior guard also knocked down four 3-pointers and finished his career with 436 made triples, ranking 12th in NCAA Division I history. Pack earned all-tournament honors after averaging 19.7 points during Oklahoma\u2019s three games in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Davis added 19 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals in the championship game. He averaged 18.7 points during the tournament and went 18-for-20 from the free throw line.<\/p>\n
Xzayvier Brown contributed 13 points and four assists, averaging 17 points per game for the tournament.<\/p>\n
Bench contributions also fueled Oklahoma\u2019s comeback. Jadon Jones scored nine points in his final career game, hitting all three of his 3-point attempts. Kai Rogers matched a career high with six points and set a new career best with eight rebounds, all in the first half.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Oklahoma finished the season strong, winning eight of its final 10 games and ending the year 21-16 \u2014 the Sooners\u2019 third straight 20-win season.<\/p>\n
West Virginia finished 21-14 and claimed the tournament\u2019s $300,000 first prize, while Oklahoma earned $100,000 as runner-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma came within minutes of a postseason tournament championship Sunday afternoon but fell to West Virginia 89-82 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-700737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116355693491432844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}