The race for the second seed in the Big 12 conference tournament is on and Oklahoma is in the driver's seat. However, West Virginia is in the same boat and the two teams will go head-to-head as they look for a first round bye. The No. 12 Sooners are hot right now, especially beyond the arc. The Mountaineers hope to shut that down and again a spot over their conference rivals.
Oklahoma is currently shooting 41.8 percent from the 3-point line. During this stretch, the team has gone 3-1. Against Texas, the sooners went 10 of 25 from beyond the arc which compensated for their lack of rebounding. Isaiah Cousins put up 24 points in that game while going 2 of 5 from long range. The Sooners are currently tied with the Longhorns from second place in the conference and cannot afford to drop a game in the final week.
More impressive than Oklahoma's 3-point abilities is the team's defensive efforts recently. The Sooners are allowing just 76.6 points per game while they held Texas' top shooters to just 23 points combined. They also earned 23 points off 16 turnovers.
West Virginia got the first win over the Sooners as the team held Oklahoma to just 5 3-point shots on 19 attempts in an overtime win. The win ended West Virginia's 16-game losing streak to ranked opponents and propelled their strong play in the conference. The Sooners may have outscored them in the second half, but a last-second shot forced overtime where the Mountaineers got the eventual victory.
West Virginia has a strong defense of their own. The team is allowing opponents to shoot just 34.1 percent from beyond the arc which could spell trouble for Oklahoma who struggled against it once before.
