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No. 17 West Virginia clamps down on Oklahoma State

Head coach Bob Huggins and his 17th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers beat Oklahoma State on Monday night for their fifth win in the past six games. (Sue Ogrocki / AP)
By John Tranchina Associated Press

STILLWATER, Okla. – Oscar Tshiebwe scored 12 points and Derek Culver had nine points and 12 rebounds to help lead No. 17 West Virginia to a 55-41 victory over Oklahoma State on Monday night.

Miles McBride also had 10 points for West Virginia (12-2, 1-1 Big 12), which is now 5-1 in its last six outings.

After defeating then-No. 5 Ohio State 67-59 on Dec. 29, the Mountaineers fell 60-53 to No. 3 Kansas on Saturday, but rebounded in a big way in this one, maintaining at least a double-digit lead for virtually the entire second half.

Lindy Waters had 12 points for Oklahoma State (9-5, 0-2), which is 2-5 in its last seven after starting the season 7-0. Waters became the 42nd player in OSU history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.

Cameron McGriff added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State missed senior guard Thomas Dziagwa, who sat out with the flu. Dziagwa is averaging 9.0 points per game and is shooting nearly 43% on 3s this year. He had started 45 consecutive contests.

Big picture

West Virginia: The Mountaineers entered the game boasting one of the NCAA’s top defenses, and they showed why. They started the game ranking fifth in field goal percentage (36.2%) and held Oklahoma State to just 29.2% (14 of 48), including just 27.3 (6 of 22) in the first half. They were also third in 3-point defense (24.9%) and limited the Cowboys, a team that entered the day averaging 31.3% on 3-pointers, to just 5% (1 of 20) from 3-point range, including 0-for-10 in the first half.

Oklahoma State: Coming off a blowout 85-50 loss to No. 22 Texas Tech on Saturday, the Cowboys started strong and hung with West Virginia for much of the first half. When Lindy Waters sank a five-foot jump shot with 7:05 left in the opening half, Oklahoma State led 13-12. But the Mountaineers’ defense tightened up after that and the Cowboys shot just 1 of 7 from the floor and West Virginia outscored them 16-6 the rest of the way until half time, as the Cowboys entered the break trailing 28-19.