Bassey, Western Kentucky upset West Virginia, 63-57

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Friday night upset the West Virginia Mountaineers, 63-57, at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

Freshman center Charles Bassey produced a double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds as the Hilltoppers (3-1) advanced to Sunday’s championship game against Central Florida.

Bassey, a 6-foot-11 native of Nigeria native who played in high school at St. Anthony in San Antonio, keyed a major upset victory for Conference USA by blocking a shot and making two steals.

Asked about playing against West Virginia’s Sagaba Konate, Bassey told Brad Stephens of the Bowling Green Daily News, “I’ve played against kids like him before. I’m ready to play against anybody.”

Three Western Kentucky guards scored in double figures, including guard Taveion Hollingsworth with 13 points, Josh Anderson (12) and Jared Savage (11).

Forward Esa Ahmad had 12 points and five rebounds for the Mountaineers (1-2) of the Big 12.

The Mountaineers committed 22 turnovers, causing coach Bob Huggins to call his team’s performance “a train wreck.”

“You can’t score when you throw it out of bounds 22 times,” he told the West Virginia radio broadcast.

Trailing by six, West Virginia made a late charge to tie the game at 57-57 on a free throw by Konate.

On the other end, Desean Murray elevated and dunked with the shot clocking winding down to spark a 6-0 run to the finish for the Hilltoppers.

West Virginia escapes with 75-73 victory at Oklahoma

The West Virginia Mountaineers stayed in the thick of the Big 12 title chase Monday night with a 75-73 victory at Oklahoma.

With the win, 19th-ranked West Virginia improved to 7-4 in conference and remained one game in the loss column behind Kansas and Texas Tech, both at 7-3.

No. 17 Oklahoma failed to hit a potential game-tying shot under the basket in the final seconds and lost its first game at home this season, falling to 6-5 in Big 12 play.

Lamont West led West Virginia with 17 points and center Sagaba Konate dominated down low, producing 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Forward Esa Ahmad also scored 14 for the Mountaineers, including seven points in the final 4:51.

National scoring leader Trae Young of Oklahoma produced a team-high 32 points on 10 of 20 shooting from the field.

Young also hit four three-point shots in the face of a physical West Virginia defense.

But the Mountaineers limited Young, also the national leader in assists, to only one.

West Virginia guard Jevon Carter finished with 10 points, eight assists and six steals.

It was the fifth time this season that Carter has had at least five assists and five steals in the same game.

Records

West Virginia (18-6, 7-4)
Oklahoma (16-7, 6-5)


West Virginia’s Jevon Carter and OU’s Rashard Odomes face off in the final minutes of a Big 12 game in Norman, Okla.

Kansas leads Big 12 basketball race by two games

The first-place Kansas Jayhawks might be hard to catch in the Big 12 basketball race if they can win at Oklahoma Tuesday night.

Kansas will take a two-game lead in the loss column on four different ball clubs leading into a game against OU at the Lloyd Noble Center.

West Virginia trailed Kansas by a game until Monday night, when it got beat 82-73 at TCU.

Now, Kansas (16-3, 6-1) leads by a game and a half and two in the loss column over both West Virginia (16-4, 5-3) and surging Kansas State.

Kansas State (15-5, 5-3) won on the road Monday night, knocking off Baylor, 90-83.

OU (14-4, 4-3) and Texas Tech (15-4, 4-3) both are two full games back with a little more than a third of the conference schedule in the books.

In Fort Worth, TCU started its day getting dropped from the AP Top 25 rankings.

But it finished with authority, recording a victory at home over a Top 10 team for the first time in nearly five years.

Guard Alex Robinson produced 17 points, nine assists and seven rebounds to lead the Frogs, who are playing without injured standout Jaylen Fisher.

Fisher was lost for the season last week after right knee surgery.

West Virginia came into Fort Worth on a roll, having blown out Texas 86-51 at home on Saturday, only to follow it up with a 33 percent shooting performance at TCU.

Jevon Carter had 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Mountaineers.