Strong shooting by Pittsnogle, Herber leads WVU over OU

— -- OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Johannes Herber couldn't believe how many easy shots West Virginia got against No. 7 Oklahoma. That left Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson embarrassed at his team's failure to play defense. Kevin Pittsnogle scored 25 points and Herber added a career-high 21 to lead a strong shooting performance by the Mountaineers in a 92-68 victory on Thursday night. "I don't know that we've had so many layups in a game," Herber said. Pittsnogle was 8-for-11 from the field, Herber was 9-for-13 and the Mountaineers (7-3) shot 66.7 percent to overcome a career-best 31-point performance from Taj Gray, who tried to single-handedly lead the Sooners (6-2) back from a 13-point deficit in the second half. "I've been at Oklahoma for 12 years, but I don't remember many times that I've left the court where I was embarrassed as I was tonight," Sampson said. It was Oklahoma's most lopsided loss since a 66-37 defeat at Texas on Feb. 8, 2004. Sampson compared it to an 86-59 loss to eventual national champion Connecticut that same season, but said that team was overmatched. "This one hurts more than any other one," he said. "... We're not going to get this thing turned around here unless a loss like tonight hurts them the way it hurts me." Gray scored all of Oklahoma's points in a 13-5 run to get the Sooners within 61-56. He had three baskets off offensive rebounds, including one for a three-point play. After a 3-pointer by Mike Gansey, he dodged Pittsnogle and slammed the ball with two hands. But the Sooners' comeback hopes fizzled after that. Gray was called for goaltending on a shot by Herber, and Herber added a three-point play on West Virginia's next possession to stretch the lead to 69-58. The Mountaineers then scored 19 of the game's final 22 points for their first win in three games against ranked opponents this season. "It felt like 10 years ago that we had beaten a really good team," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "We didn't have that quality win yet." Gansey added 15 points and Frank Young scored 14 for West Virginia, which has won seven in a row. The Mountaineers are 7-0 when holding opponents under 70 points this season. During Sampson's tenure, Oklahoma has only allowed one opponent to shoot better: Oklahoma State shot 67.3 percent in February 1996 during Sampson's second season. "You would think we'd never ever ever scouted an opponent or worked on defense or any of those things," Sampson said. "We tried to man them. We tried to zone them. We couldn't get them to miss." Sampson said his teams have become known as tough, but that doesn't hold true for his team right now. He said he would have preferred to make his team practice after the game, but NCAA rules don't allow it. "We had some teams that would just scratch your eyes and claw and play their guts out and find a way to win that game. That was a winnable game," he said. "We've got some issues we've got to resolve here." Michael Neal scored all 16 of his points in the first half for Oklahoma. The Sooners couldn't get the ball inside against West Virginia's zone in the first half and instead settled for perimeter shots. About the only way the Sooners could get the ball to Gray was to miss a shot, and they had no trouble doing that. While Gray was 8-for-10 in the second half, his teammates were 5-for-19. On the other end, the Mountaineers hardly missed. West Virginia shot 64 percent in the first half, including 13-for-14 from inside the 3-point arc, and led 41-34. It was the Mountaineers' best shooting performance in a half this season until a 16-for-23 (69.6 percent) performance after halftime. Sampson said he didn't think any team was good enough to shoot 67 percent, unless their opponent just wasn't playing defense. "It starts with me," Sampson said. "What happened tonight, it starts and ends with Coach Sampson. I've got to do a better job. I've got to do a better job getting them to where when they get beat on the back side, it's not just water off a duck's back. "I've got to get them to take more pride in each defensive possession."