West Virginia rallies, beats Oklahoma in OT to win College Basketball Crown
Honor Huff scored 38 points and made eight 3-pointers to help West Virginia rally for an 89-82 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the College Basketball Crown championship game on Sunday in Las Vegas.
Chance Moore added 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Mountaineers (21-14), who trailed by 13 points in the second half before rallying. Brenen Lorient scored 15 points in the program's first postseason tournament title since winning the 2007 NIT.
Nijel Pack led Oklahoma (21-16) with 24 points and seven assists, followed by Tae Davis' 19 points and Xzayvier Brown's 13.
Oklahoma scored the first six points of overtime, taking an 82-76 lead on Pack's layup.
Jasper Floyd then hit his first 3-pointer of the game, followed by Huff's triple to tie the score with 2:14 remaining. After Pack missed a 3-pointer, Floyd hit another trey to give the Mountaineers an 85-82 lead.
West Virginia got stops on its next two possessions and Huff drilled four straight free throws to seal the championship win.
Oklahoma pushed its four-point halftime lead to 10 on Pack's 3-pointer, forcing a West Virginia timeout less than four minutes into the second half.
Brown's jumper extended the margin to 13, before Huff's three-point play and Moore's layup cut the deficit to 59-51.
Lorient's basket at the 5:23 mark pulled West Virginia within three. Derrion Reid and Davis scored on Oklahoma's next two possessions, giving the Sooners a 71-64 lead.
From there, Huff scored five straight points and Lorient made a layup to tie the score at 71 with 1:45 remaining.
After an Oklahoma timeout, Pack and Huff traded triples. Davis then turned the ball over and committed a foul on Huff, who drained two free throws with 33 seconds left.
Davis' ensuing layup tied the score at 76. Huff missed a go-ahead 3-pointer on the other end, sending the game to overtime.
The Mountaineers connected on eight of their first 10 3-point attempts, including Huff's three straight triples to build a 26-11 lead.
Oklahoma answered with a 16-2 run, cutting its deficit to a point on Pack's mid-range jumper with 5:25 left in the first half.
After Moore's layup snapped a four-plus minute West Virginia scoring drought, the Sooners scored nine straight points, taking a 36-30 advantage. Davis closed the first half with a three-point play to give Oklahoma a 41-37 halftime lead.