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West Virginia survives Oklahoma comeback and Buddy Hield heave

Kyle Ringo

One night after Oklahoma senior Buddy Hield put on an offensive show and strengthened his national Player of the Year candidacy in a win over Iowa State, he was taken completely out of his game Friday by West Virginia.

But it almost didn’t matter.


With his team down by two and 1.8 seconds on the clock, Hield snatched an inbound pass from Ryan Spangler on the run. He dribbled twice, leaped just ahead of the mid-court stripe and launched a shot that banked in seemingly giving the Sooners a come-from-behind win.

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Hield jumped into the crowd pumping his fist and celebrating while officials checked the monitors to verify the shot. They found the ball was still on his fingertips as time expired, waving off the only shot anyone will remember from the game a few years from now.

The Mountaineers advance to play Kansas after a thrilling 69-67 victory over the Sooners.

Oklahoma trailed by 11 points with 6 minutes, 28 seconds remaining but went on a 17-8 run to close the game and came a fraction of a second from pulling off a rabbit-out-of-hat victory.

West Virginia hounded Hield all night, limiting him to six points on 1-for-8 shooting. Hield certainly had to be fatigued from his 39-point outing 24 hours earlier but the Mountaineers deserve the bulk of the credit for being physical with him and forcing the Sooners into 21 turnovers.

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Sophomore guard Jevon Carter led West Virginia with a season-best 26 points, making six of nine 3-pointers, also a season high. He hadn’t made more than four 3-pointers in a game this year prior to Friday.

The Mountaineers will try to upset Kansas for the second time this season on Saturday and claim the conference tournament title, heading into the NCAA tournament.

Oklahoma heads home to prepare for the next tournament as well and is still a likely No. 2 seed and a team capable of winning a national title with a special player like Hield. Though West Virginia has now provided an example of what can happen to the Sooners when Hield is relentlessly defended and his teammates are forced to make more plays than they're used to.

 

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!