WVMountaineerSports.com would like to welcome Andy Brown, our newest contributor. For now his focus will be on Huggstown Basketball and all things concerning the bball program and WVU’s run to the big dance in March! Here is his first post.. enjoy!!!

by Andy Brown

It’s very easy to say that tonight’s basketball game vs Oklahoma at the Charleston Civic Center was a thrilling hard-fought physical game from start to finish. This double-overtime classic had all the twists and turns of a Tucker County dirt road. The atmosphere of a sold-out crowd of 12,380 were fortunate to see two physical teams going toe-to-toe, mano-a-mano. As a fan, I am spent from cheering the Mountaineers to what appeared to be a hard-fought victory. Instead, we as Mountaineer basketball fans will have to suffer from the injustice of inconsistent officiating, missed opportunities, and failing to deliver the knockout punch.

In the first half, Oklahoma flew out the gate with a 4-0 lead. WVU countered with a trey to tie the game at 6. The scoring then started to go at a stagnate pace and that’s when the ticky tack calls came their to way to both teams leaving WVU’s Da’Sean Butler, Wellington Smith, and OU’s Longar Longar in the bench for most on the first half with two fouls. That left Smalligan for the most part defending highly-touted freshman Blake Griffin. He dominated the point with 10 pts and 6 rebounds in the first half. Smalligan had the last say in the first half when he made a lay-up and 1. That 3-point play made the difference as WVU led at the half 27-24. The fact that Oklahoma had 10 turnovers and were 4-10 from the FT line.

WVU came stormin’ out the gate with Butler scoring the first 4 points of the second half to led 31-24. Oklahoma answered back with a 10-4 run and had a chance to take a lead and again failed to capitalize on two foul shots that would’ve given them the lead. Smith’s put back and 1 plus a straight-away 3 from Nichols got WVU back in control with a 44-38 with 13:30 remaining. Longar remained in foul trouble but Griffin continued to dominate despite getting a pulled hamstring and a bloody nose from Nichols’ flailing elbow. He kept OU in the game as when as timely 3’s by guard Austin Johnson. Again the refs called an inconsistent game by letting the hard shots go. Such as Longar’s elbow off a rebound right square in Ruoff’s jaw. Despite all that, WVU tried to pull away when Ruoff’s stole the ball from the open court made the lay-up plus 1. With that play, WVU was up 58-50 with 6:10 left. Out of nowhere, the Sooners came right back with a 7-0 run capped by a emphatic alley-oop slam by Griffin. The rest of the 2nd half was back in forth until Godbold’s was called for a controversial foul when led to stuff being thrown on the court. Coach Huggs called out the crowd to find the culprit which they did right away. Godbold made both free throws which was trouble for WVU as they were down 66-64 with 12 seconds left. Down the court they go Alexander missed a contested jumper but Ruoff was at the right moment when tipped-in the missed jumper sending the game to overtime.

In overtime, WVU shot out the gate again scoring the first 5 points all by Butler to lead 71-66. OU again countered to close the WVU led by 3 at 73-70. WVU had TWO chances to ice the game. Nichols, a steady foul-shooter missed the front end of the one-in-one. After OU came down the court the ball became loose. Ruoff, the team’s best decision-maker on the court, unexpectedly threw the ball down-court only to have the ball deflected back to OU. Ruoff could’ve held the ball and wait to be fouled but he saw an open man and that turned into a disastrous result. Tony Crocker’s hit a 3 off the screen to tie the game at 73. Double OT folks.

In double overtime both teams succumbed to high intensity of the game leading OU’s Griffin to foul out. 18 points and 16 rebounds for a freshman is a man-sized game in my book. Smalligan did all he could to hold down Longar but he too fouled out. His tip-in at 81-79 with 2 minutes remaining was a close as the Mountaineers would get it. OU made the crucial free throws down the stretch as they held on to a hard fought 88-82 victory over our beloved Mountaineers.were in a physical struggle throughout the game. Oklahoma’s star center Longar Longar was in early foul trouble throughout the first half but highly-touted freshman Blake Griffin picked up the slack as he scored 10 pts and 6 rebounds in the first half creating many headaches for the WVU frontline in particular Smalligan.

Coach Huggins thoughts after the game. Not word for word but in context Ruoff tried to make a play. WVU should have foul early but we were playing small and couldn’t rebound of the FT line. Oklahoma made shots that they normally don’t. We had good shots but they just didn’t fall. Team got tired as the game went on. We just gotta get better. Excitement of the game reverted them back to old habits. Dumb plays should be a really good team.

This game tonight will not come close to a rematch of both teams in the Fiesta Bowl on Wednesday. I say GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Mountaineers and win one for Old Man Stewart. Back to basketball, WVU will embark on a tough Big East schedule starting with a road trip to Notre Dame on Thursday then a home encounter with Marquette next Sunday. For WVU now to have an NCAA at-large bid they must get off to a good start. A winning Big East conference record is a must or we’ll be sweating bullets in March. Hope you enjoy reading the game summary (long one isn’t it?) and LETS GO MOUNTAINEERS!