<div align="center"> <font color=""Blue"">West Virgina</font> @ #7 <font color=""Red"">Oklahoma</font></div> <div align="center">Date: December 22, 2005 When: 8:30 PM EST Where: ESPN 2</div> <div align="center"><font color=""Blue"">West Virginia Starters:</font> (J.D. Collins, Mike Gansey, Joe Herber, Frank Young, Kevin Pittsnogle)</div> In order to win, West Virginia needs run their offense, don't let Oklahoma sit around on Defense. Make back door cuts, go screen, and get open shots. If they can get Pittsnogle going early, it should help. Bookout or Taj Gray, whoever is covering Pittsnogle, isn't going to feel comfortable outside of the arc. Not very many big men feel comfortable covering someone outside the paint. Gansey needs to play well also, the few games I've seen West Virginia play in, Gansey is a key player for them. He's one of their leaders along side with Pittsnogle. If West Virginia gets going early and keep the crowd silent, West Virginia will win this one. <div align="center"><font color=""Red"">Oklahoma Starters:</font> (Chris Walker, David Godbold, Terrell Everett, Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout)</div> Kelvin Sampson going to have his team up for this game. He'll want to establish their low-post game early by getting Bookout and Gray many touches. If they can get Pittsnogle in trouble, that will also prevent them from getting Pittsnogle'd on Defense. Oklahoma also need to take advantage of their athletic guards, West Virginia is no where near as athletic as Oklahoma. If they can run West Virginia out of the building, this will be a huge win for Oklahoma going into the Holidays. Oklahoma has some good depth too that will give them the advantage of having fresh bodies out on the court. The two key players off the bench will be Nate Carter and Michael Neal. If Neal can get hot, watchout, he's made 36% from behind the arc off the bench. Prediction: West Virginia pulls off the upset in Oklahoma City by 5, 65-60. The Sooners get Pittsnogle'd, and the Gansey tears up the OU back court. Taj Gray and Bookout struggle early but they make a fierce 2nd half comeback that gets cut short.
41-34 West Virginia @ half Edit: So much for my idea of a low scoring game, 61-56 WV 11+ minutes left
92-68 West Virginia wins Pittsnogle had 25 points and Herber added 21, for OU, Taj Gray had a monster game, 31 points. Gray was unstoppable but for some reason OU just stop going to him and started jacking up 3's. Neal had all 16 of his points in the 1st half. OU gets Pittsnogle'd in Oklahoma City.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Kevin Pittsnogle scored 25 points and Johannes Herber added a career-high 21 to lead a strong shooting performance by West Virginia in a 92-68 victory over No. 7 Oklahoma on Thursday night. Pittsnogle was 8-for-11 from the field, Herber was 9-for-13 and the Mountaineers (7-3) shot 66.7 percent to overcome a career-best 31-point performance from Taj Gray, who tried to single-handedly lead the Sooners (6-2) back from a 13-point deficit in the second half. Gray scored all of Oklahoma's points in a 13-5 run. He had three baskets off offensive rebounds, including one for a three-point play, and got the Sooners within 61-56. After a 3-pointer by Mike Gansey, he dodged Pittsnogle and slammed the ball with two hands. But the Sooners' comeback hopes fizzled after that. Gray was called for goaltending on a shot by Heber, and Heber added a three-point play on West Virginia's next possession to stretch the lead to 69-58. The Mountaineers then scored 19 of the game's final 22 points for their first win in three games against ranked opponents this season. Gansey added 15 points and Frank Young scored 14 for West Virginia, which is 7-0 when holding opponents under 70 points this season </div> Source Another upset early on in the season. Pittsnoogle has definitely picked up his game the last two outings for W. Virginia. The team shot 68% from the field, and made 20 out of 23 FTAs.
My goodness. When this WVU team is on from the field, they're a extremely tough team. I figured Bookout would be able to contain Pittsnogle, but wow, he lit them up. He shot 80% from the field and hit 3/4 three-pointers. Gansey looked pretty good too with 21 pts and he did that by hitting only 1 three-pointer. Well, I guess WVU can win a game without relying on the three point shot to save them...
