MORGANTOWN — Going simply by a gut feeling, Pauly Paulicap felt he was due for a better game.
The West Virginia forward has spent the majority of the season making his presence known on the defensive end, but in the Mountaineers’ 72-59 loss against Oklahoma on Tuesday night, the fifth-year senior found some much-needed offense around the rim.
“Today, I just came up with a different athletic energy,” Paulicap said. “I was ready to go as soon as we started warm-ups. I guess that doesn’t matter with the loss.”
Paulicap and Cotrell played the majority of the minutes in this game for WVU’s power forwards.
Gabe Osabuohien was scoreless over seven minutes and did not play in the second half. Dimon Carrigan had two points over nine minutes, but played just three minutes in the second half.
“Obviously I liked what we got out of (Paulicap) or I wouldn’t have played him as many minutes as I played him,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We’ve been trying to keep a fresh guy in there. He was contributing so much more than our other guys at that position that it was foolish not to play him more minutes.”
Not many free throws
WVU was a perfect 4 of 4 from the foul line, but the four attempts was the lowest amount of the season.
In fact, it’s the lowest total in a game for WVU since traveling to Kansas on Feb. 17, 2018, and only getting two free-throw attempts in that game.
Huggins was ejected in that trip to Lawrence.
As for Tuesday night, all four free-throw attempts came midway in the first half, meaning the Mountaineers played the final 29:13 of the game without shooting a free throw.
That was despite the fact WVU’s took a lot of shots while driving to the rim — mostly from guard Malik Curry, who finished with 17 points — and grabbed nine offensive rebounds in the second half.
“I thought so,” Huggins said when asked if WVU should have gone to the line more times. “I obviously don’t have a whistle.”
Battle of the boards
West Virginia came away with a 32-25 edge in rebounding, with half of its rebounds on the offensive end.
The oddity of that stat is Oklahoma came away with a 9-6 advantage on second-chance points.
The Mountaineers did get 10 more shots than the Sooners, but Oklahoma killed the Mountaineers by scoring 23 points off of WVU’s 15 turnovers.
Malik Curry was the Mountaineers’ leading rebounder with six.
News and notes
** WVU finishes the regular season 0-9 in Big 12 road games, the first time that’s happened since the 2018-19 season. The Mountaineers are 1-10 overall on the road, with the one win coming on Dec. 18 at UAB.
** Oklahoma shot 52.9% from the field (27 of 51). It’s the fourth straight game WVU has allowed a team to shoot better than 50%.
** Sean McNeil finished 1 of 8 shooting against the Sooners. Over his last six games, he’s 15 of 48 (31%).
** Kedrian Johnson was in West Virginia’s starting lineup Tuesday, but played only nine minutes. He’s been battling a hip injury. He nailed a 3-pointer to begin the game, but came out moments later after getting bumped and limped toward the bench.
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